Lent is a period of deep spiritual preparation, which is found within the Catholic Church’s calendar, and occurs, fittingly, in the spring, which signifies new life, and comes after winter, which signifies death. The 40 days of Lent, which begin this Ash Wednesday, prepare the Catholic faithful for Easter Sunday, which is the Resurrection of our Lord, by following closely-through Liturgical celebrations-the Passion and Death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and in doing so, prepare Catholics for ongoing conversion in grace for renewed Life in the Most Holy Trinity.
Lent is a penitential time for Catholics; a solemn season in which Catholics participate in the salvific actions of our Lord through Liturgical celebrations (Mass), and personal sacrifices in abstinence, fasting, prayer, confession and spiritual and corporal works of mercy. In a sense, through the Wisdom and guidance of the Church, Catholics are called to die with Christ in order that they may (more fully) participate in His Resurrection, and His fullness of Life, on Easter Sunday. In effect, they are given an abundance of grace to live out their baptismal calling in a most efficacious manner.
Lent, moreover, is a time for conversion. New Testament Greek describes conversion as Metanoia, which refers to repentance. The official Latin Bible translation of the Church, the Vulgate, refers to the word Epistrepho, which means ‘be converted.’ This literally refers to ‘physically turning in a new direction’ or ‘the turning from sin toward God.’ Lent is the season of preparation, a 40 day process of conversion where the Catholic, with the ever-more-powerful aid of grace, effects ‘a turning from in order to turn towards’ in reference to leaving sin and embracing God.
(Here are some helpful Bible references concerning conversion: Lk 2:20, Acts 3:19, 26:20, 1Cor 6:20, 7:3)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church poignantly uses these analogies to highlight the spiritual benefits of Lent:
“Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: ‘For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.’ By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” CCC-540
“For this reason (the teaching of God’s Mercy in Jesus) the Church, especially during Advent and Lent and above all at the Easter Vigil, re-reads and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the ‘today’ of her liturgy. But this also demands that catechesis help the faithful to open themselves to this spiritual understanding of the economy of salvation as the Church’s liturgy reveals it and enables us to live it.” CCC-1095
“The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).” CCC-1438
But most importantly, Lent is much more than external acts, for it is a blessed time of permanent internal change of heart. As St. James pointed out in this past week’s Scripture readings, living faith reveals itself in acts of selfless love. Agape is the biblical description of such a love. Agape is the Love of the Cross. Lent is the season in which ‘the concrete daily effort of a person, supported by God’s grace to lose his or her own life for Christ' is 'the only means of gaining it (Mt 16:24-26, Mk 8:34-36, Lk 9:23-25), an effort to put off the old man (sin) and put on the new (Christ).’
Lent is the shedding of the selfish me, for the greater Agape of He.
Let me know what you think!
P.S. S.H., my MTS refers to ‘Master of Theological Studies’…
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