The Joyful Season of Lent

First Sunday of Lent (A)
13 March 2011
St. Hilary’s, Chicago

http://www.usccb.org/nab/031311.shtml


During this season of Lent, the Church meditates on the reality of human sinfulness. Today, we have heard the readings of the fall of humanity into Sin and Death. Saint Paul tells us how the Sin of Adam has affected all of his children – the entire human race. And, we see in our own lives how each one of us fails to follow God. We follow our own thoughts, plans, and desires. We yield to our temptations rather than heeding the voice of God.


However, we do not meditate on human sinfulness here at the beginning of Lent in order to fall into despair or “Catholic guilt”. Rather, at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer, the first preface of Lent says to God the Father, “Each year You give us this joyful season/ when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed.”


Lent is not about feeling sorry for ourselves, thinking “Oh, I’m such a miserable person.” While we do remember our own sinfulness, Lent focuses us not on ourselves, but on our need for God. We prepare this season, not to be miserable, but to rejoice in the amazing gift of God, who came to rescue us from the power of Sin and Death. We stand in awe, that “the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.”


Jesus himself redeems us from Sin and Death through the Paschal Mystery – his own suffering, death, and resurrection. He came to our rescue by his power as God, so that “Just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”


We can see the beginning of this redemption in Christ’s temptation. Christ was tempted by hunger, and Satan encouraged him to turn some stones into bread. But, ultimately it is not physical food that satisfies us. Ultimately, we must completely depend and trust on God. Christ was tempted to make himself famous by being miraculously rescued, but God chooses to come to us in the ordinary events of life. Finally, Christ was tempted by what seemed to be an easier path to his goal of bringing everyone back to God, but it involved the falsehood of worshiping someone other than God.


As we continue through Lent, we have the example of Christ, who calls us to follow him. Certainly, we are tempted by those habits we have developed which we are trying to change. But, temptation isn’t a sin – for even Christ himself was tempted. Rather, temptation is a chance for us to choose again to follow Christ. On Ash Wednesday, when the entire Church fasted, many of us were hungry. At the seminary, some of us make fasts throughout the year for various reasons. Yet somehow, Ash Wednesday, one of the two days when the Church requires us to fast, somehow that day the temptation to eat is nearly unbearable. We’re doing something right, and we can spiritually join ourselves to Christ hungry in the desert.


Here, as we are still just beginning this Lent, perhaps we should ask just one question: Are we focused on ourselves, or are we really trying to become more like Christ? What are our Lenten promises? Are they really bringing us closer to Christ, or am I doing them for me? Have I done something to help me grow in faith, or am I giving up chocolate, planning to indulge when Easter comes?


If you find that you need something to help you to come to know, love, and follow Christ more closely, perhaps consider picking up a Lenten promise to do something. Perhaps you’re busy. But, I bet you could find even 15 minutes for God. How about reading scripture 15 minutes a day? Start in the Gospel of Matthew. Or, look at the Missalette at the readings for these Sundays of Lent. Read slowly, and let God talk to you through the text. Listen for what he might be saying to you. Pray. Give thanks for his love revealed in his Son.


Perhaps you could spend that 15 minutes and stop in the church on your way home from work and visit Jesus here in the tabernacle. Or, bring the family together to pray the rosary – or at least a decade – every day of Lent. Perhaps you want to understand the faith better. You could read the Catechism for 15 minutes.


Lent is not about misery; it is about joy – the joy of knowing Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, who has loved us so much that he suffered and died so that we too could rise to life in him. Dear friends, let us make the best use of this joyful season of Lent as we prepare for the glorious season of Easter. Let us become more fervent in our Lenten discipline, so that we who have sinned in Adam can become alive again in Christ.