Lent is the time that allows us to reflect on prayer and penance in order to deepen our understanding of it so we can set our hearts right in welcoming His divine will in our lives.
In this season, we are favored to receive the grace that was made available by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ through his passion and death. The church proposes we observe this season with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. According to Pope Francis, “Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, as preached by Jesus (Mt. 6:1-18), enable and express our conversion.”[1] For the Pope, Lent is a time to believe, to receive God into our lives, and to let him establish his dwelling place in us. It is in this context that I have asked myself if Lent can be a lifestyle, or can we live lent for a season only?
To properly explain or respond to this question, I would like to start with the definition of the word Lent given by theologians. It took its origin in the Latin “Quadragesima” which means “Fortieth.” We can find in that word a number forty which designates in the Bible a period to complete an important spiritual challenge. “When the Bible uses forty, something challenging that leads to spiritual growth is always taking place within the context of forty days.”[2] We then remember forty years of the crossing of the desert by the Israelites, and forty days spent by Jesus in the desert where he was tempted by Satan. In the dictionary of the liturgy, Rev. Jovian P. Lang defined lent as “A penitential season of prayer starting with Ash Wednesday and continuing until Holy Saturday.”
Moreover, lent reminds us of the death and resurrection of Jesus. So, one model, one principle, one Lenten effort is to imitate Jesus, to follow the path he had taken. Hence the primordial importance of mediation is to put Christ before our eyes, in our hearts, and in our lives. The tendency is to limit our change only during lent. We then say to ourselves, it’s only forty days and then I start doing the usual things all over again, or it’s only forty days of self-denial and then I would continue my life. It was one year in philosophy when we gave up eating pizza during Lent. Upon finishing Lent, we indulged in pizza like someone who has never eaten it before. In our mind, we said that we would recover all that we had not eaten in lent. Shouldn’t a Christian’s change go beyond forty days and extend to involve even his lifetime?
I remember that it has been said by sad people that they have made all their lives like lent. Indeed, lent efforts must change all our life. It must be a desert experience to rediscover the essentials, and this way of life is a conversion. To borrow Pope Francis’ words, “Lent is not just about the little sacrifices we make but about discerning where our hearts are directed toward God or toward ourselves.”[3] For him, Lent is a journey to return to God, especially when most people live each day ignoring or delaying their response to God’s invitation to pray and to do something good for others. We are called to reconsider the path we are taking and find the route that leads us home to our father because we are like the prodigal son. This effort mustn’t have its limit during Lent alone. It’s our daily life as Christians. We start this moment of Lent knowing that our effort will not be only for this lent but will surely go beyond this season. Let’s make this journey, a journey of conversion for our life and others. Let’s take this moment as a privileged moment of changing our lives. In our community and our daily life, may the Lenten fruits be shown through the changes in our lives.
In his lent message in 2022, Pope Francis exhorted us in this way: “Let us not grow tired of praying, uprooting evil from our lives, asking forgiveness in the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, fighting against concupiscence, and doing good in active charity towards our neighbors.” Because for him, “Every stage of life is a time to believe.”[4] If we lived Lent every day, considered every second of our life as a second of repentance; lived every third of our lives giving alms, fasting, and praying, what would the world be like? Today? This is the question that prompts me to consider lent as part of my life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. For that, I must consider every moment of my life as a moment of change.
We ask the Lord to journey with us into the desert, equip us with faith to change our lives, and have a special experience that will lead us until the end of our time on this earth. With Jesus, we will turn away from our sins and convert all our lives to Him. May this Lent be special for us because is the first and unique. As Mary, we will follow Jesus in the way of suffering but with joy, we will sing Alleluia because Jesus has won over suffering and death. Accompanied by His Spirit, we will also win over all temptations to not change our lives. He won’t let us alone in this season while singing the “Sabat Mater”. Jesus be with us.
Source(s):
[1]Pope Francis, Lent Message 2021
[2]http:// Cross walk.com, consulted on January 31, 2023 at 4: 10 pm
[3] Pope Francis, Ash Wednesday Homely 2022
[4] Pope Francis, Message of Lent 2021
