by Brother John
M. Samaha, S.M.
To
see Lent only as a period of spiritual practices, penances, and self-imposed
deprivations would be distorted and limited.
Some understand Lent solely as a time of painful spiritual exercises
accepted more or less willingly. But
with reflection and by following attentively the Lenten celebrations brought to
us by the Church and its liturgy, we come to recognize that Lent is a paradigm
of Christian life. We come to recognize
the wisdom of St. Benedict’s admonition that the lives of Christians and of the
Church “ought to be a continuous Lent.”
Lent is a reminder of our baptismal consecration to live as other
Christs in our circumstances.
Lent
is an important time of the liturgical year aimed at redressing Christian
life. The works of Lent – prayer,
almsgiving, fasting – do not have their value in themselves, as the Scriptures
proclaim on Ash Wednesday and the following Thursday and Friday. All actions have a God-centered motive and
aim.
In
encouraging us to a greater emphasis on private and liturgical prayer, the
Church does so to help us to recapture during Lent their rightful place in Christian life at all
times.
Almsgiving
and sharing practiced during Lent are part of a movement of conversion
regarding the use of goods. Far from
jealously and selfishly keeping material goods for themselves, Christians learn
to possess them not as possessing them.
They manage their possessions as good stewards, with constant concern
for those less fortunate. This is not an
occasional practice either. The ideal
continues to be relevant at any time there is a need.
Primarily,
fasting concerns restricting our bodily intake of food and drink. Whatever value is assigned to seasonal or
even habitual fasting, fasting is essentially an attack on uncontrolled
appetite for earthly goods of all kinds.
We are called to learn to restrain our greed for earthly goods, and to
have concern for the needs of others (Is 58: 6-9). People yield easily to such an appetite,
especially in countries where over-consumption is a matter of course. Not to curb the search for bodily and
material satisfactions is pagan.
Christians seek to rectify their behavior in order to balance their
everyday lifestyle in harmony with their faith and hope. The pagans think we should eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die. But the dead are
raised, and now we know that Christ has been raised from the dead, the
first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep (1Cor 15).
The
lessons from Scripture proclaimed during Lent help us raise our eyes to God and
His plan of salvation, to Christ and His mystery that brings this plan to
realization, to its fulfillment here and now in the Church and in the
world. Of course, this can be said of
all seasons of the liturgical year. What
characterize Lenten liturgies are the density, the wealth, and the strength of
the texts. Especially challenging are
the Gospel readings for Christian initiation, the selected apostolic
catecheses, and the remembrance of the most significant steps of salvation
history. In this way Lent proves to be
catechumenal for all baptized persons and not only for those preparing for
baptism. With special insistence Lent
repeats the never-ceasing call: “Become what you are.”
Lent
is a paschal journey because it leads us to the Easter celebrations. It has a fixed place in the liturgical
calendar, beginning with Ash Wednesday and ending on Holy Thursday before the
evening Mass. But Christian life is
wholly paschal because it is an exodus toward our eternal Father. From this point of view, Lent is a parable of
the lives of Christians and a paradigm of the Church. What is experienced intensely for forty days
must give new and enduring dynamism to our lives in all the days of the Lord.
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