Lent has begun in earnest. Today is the First Sunday of Lent. We are by-standers watching Jesus contend with temptation, and winning. Jesus was prepared for the onslaught of temptation through his desert discipline. Fasting and prayer wakened him to his inner truth and the strength of the Almighty within. This is our destiny if we engage and persist
The practices of lent—fasting, prayer, and almsgiving—are a “wake-up call” to be more intentional about how I do what I do and why I do what I do. Of course, the awakening also points out my frailties and where I need conversion. This wakefulness could be my every day, year-round consciousness, but often, sadly, it is not. Nevertheless Lent charges me and my community to be attentive. Thank God for this awakening! Don’t back away from disciplines; welcome them…and the way in which they will fine-tune my heart, body, and soul.
Lent leads us to recognize the presence and power of the resurrection. The whole Catholic (Christian) community is invited to the journey to the Cenacle…to the Garden… to Calvary…and to the garden of the sepulcher in order to witness Jesus’ fidelity to the Father and to witness the subtle and powerful work of God on earth. Although there is glory in the resurrection, it is not the ticker-tape parade that we humans would demand to laud our achievement. The Lord works secretively, a journey of conversion from the inside out.
In addition, among us there are pilgrims who are making this attentive journey for the first time in the Catholic community. Some have never been baptized—catechumens who now have become “the Elect—and some from other Christian traditions—candidates who will enter the church at the Easter Vigil. There is something about the way you act and speak in faith that has attracted these members here. This is your witness. Although we are “still under construction,” there is sufficient evidence of fidelity, hope, and love that reveals a wondrous way of living in this cock-eyed world with sense and sensibility. The more we become conformed to the image of Christ Jesus, the more his grace will consecrate the world and change its operating procedures to those of justice and peace.
If we enter Lent with a heart open to God, we will be different by the end. It will not be a difference that I decide or know ahead of time; it will surprise me…but not God. Let us boldly go where Christians ought to go…that journey with Jesus to his Jerusalem to meet his confrontation, having been steeled with the learning of the desert discipline and temptations.
