April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
LENTEN REFLECTION
The season of Lent: Part I
Sometimes, we can be so familiar with something like Lent that it might be useful to step back and look at it with fresh eyes. Perhaps we can do this, too, because Lent is a season with many levels and aspects - a very rich season indeed!
Lent is also very much about going back to the basics: We are, quite simply, invited by Jesus to renew our faith and our love as His disciples.
Of course, Lent is about doing extra things or making sacrifices, but we can also think of it as an intensification and refocusing of our spiritual lives - of building on what is there already and developing good spiritual habits.
In this way, all the good that we do can be carried on once the season ends. It would be a great pity if all the progress that we may have made during Lent evaporated on Easter Sunday!
The English word "Lent," in fact, comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word for spring: a time of renewal and rebirth.
Lent is also a journey - "40 days and 40 nights," as the hymn states. Every journey needs a destination, so Lent is a journey "to climb the holy mountain of Easter." It is important to remember that we do not take this journey alone:
• First, we have the company of Jesus, who encourages and urges us on. In a way, we accompany Him through His temptations (the first Sunday of Lent), His transfiguration (the second Sunday), His public ministry and signs of who Jesus is (the third, fourth and fifth Sundays) and, especially, His last journey to the cross and resurrection (Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter).
• We also make the journey of Lent with all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. What we do here in our parishes and communities in the Diocese of Albany, people throughout the world (and for many generations) also do or have done. That's quite a thought!
• Our particular friends on this journey are our candidates and catechumens in the various Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) programs as they prepare for Easter. Keep them and the RCIA teams in your special prayers as the candidates and catechumens look toward joining the Catholic Church.
Lent is very much a penitential season: that is, a time of purification and of a renewed sense of conversion. We symbolize this is many ways. We have purple vestments at Mass; the music can have a particular tone and flavor; the church is decorated very simply. On Ash Wednesday, we even followed a very ancient custom of having ashes put on our foreheads. This ritual action is mentioned a number of times in the Old Testament as a sign of penitence or of mourning.
This time of penance and conversion really involves a double action, as the words said when we received the ashes reminded us: "Repent and believe in the Gospel." Penance and conversion mean both an acknowledgement of the need for forgiveness (repentance) and a resolution to overcome faults and failings, and therefore to grow spiritually and to live in Christ - really believing in the Gospel.
It also means deepening our faith and love, and being faithful to God by the sort of person we are and the life that we live. It is no coincidence that the word "conversion" is very close to the word "conversation." Our continued conversion is really about developing our conversation with God - of being ever more open to God's presence and power and deepening our relationship with Him.
Let us pray for each other: that we will journey well, that we will indeed repent and believe the Gospel and that our conversation with God will grow and deepen. May this Lent be a true "springtime" for us all.
(Father Barratt is pastor of St. Ambrose parish in Latham. He holds a doctorate in theology and was a professor at St. John's Seminary in England before coming to the U.S. in 2004.)[[In-content Ad]]
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