So Lent Begins...

This is the time of the year when our Holy Mother the Church uses all her rich resources to bring us back to holiness, back to wholeness in Christ. She exorcises and reconciles; she pardons and blesses and anoints; she instructs and lays on hands; she worships and fasts, and does everything possible to touch us with Christ.

Our human condition is summed up in Adam and Eve. They decided to act on their own decision and in their own strength, and apart from God. And so have we. As a result, life around us has collapsed. People are fractured and broken, isolated and alone in their shame and guilt. The human soul, in its rebellion against God, has become addicted and trapped in its own sickness. Our Ancient Enemy, the Father of Lies and the Great Seducer, has captivated us and we are powerless in his control. Like the Prodigal Son, we long for the freedom of the sons and daughters of God. Our souls hunger for food that has substance to it.

Christ comes to us to release us from our captivity, to bring Good News to us in our poverty, to give us sight, to restore our liberty, and to empower us to walk in the glorious freedom that belongs to us as God's children.

So that all this might happen, we must first curb our arrogance, put bridle and bit to our pride, and acknowledge the hunger of our souls. Fasting, almsgiving, and prayer are the remedies that allow us to empty ourselves of arrogance and ego-centrism; they clear out the accumulated clutter that has been deposited in our souls, sweeping them clean and so making room once again for God's presence to dwell within us.

God is at work. God is offering, calling, inviting and making Himself present to us in Christ. He is interacting with us in His Mystical Body, the Church. He is working to bring about our salvation. He suffered and died for our sins. He suffered and died so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, our humanity can be raised up from spiritual death to victory.

So then, how could we not respond? How could we fail to act? How could we possibly ignore Him and turn away from all that God is doing for us in Christ?

Now is the time of our salvation. Now the day is at hand. Now is the opportunity for us to act. Now is the time for prayer, for fasting and for almsgiving, so that we might empty ourselves of those things that bring death, and make room for the Source of Life, Jesus Christ, to enter into us, to marry Himself to us, and to make us one with Him forever in Paradise.

Lent has but one purpose, and none other: to prepare us for eternal life in heaven.

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Painting: "Man of Sorrows"

by William Dyce (1806-1864)