Lenten mode

HUMAN as we are, we need to go through different modes to be able to capture the different aspects and expectations of our life. As Scripture says, “there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…” (Ecc 3,4)

Even in our daily routine, we go through different phases and moods--serious, relaxed, intense, etc.—to correspond to what we think is proper in any given situation.

Well, the season of Lent reminds us that we need to weep and mourn somehow. We tend to get so absorbed with our earthly affairs and concerns, dancing to their twists and turns, that we forget we need to be with God. We have to acknowledge our need for purification and conversion.

That is why in the first reading of the Mass for Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, we are told, “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning…” (Joel 2,12)

Yes, we have to remember this invitation of God to us. We have to go back to him with our whole heart that would first need to be purified through fasting, weeping and mourning. And the second reading, from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, tells us “now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.” (6,2)

The heart is crucial, because that is where our true identity is, where our real condition lies. “Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.” (Mt 6,21) We need to make sure that our heart stays where it comes from and where it belongs to, and that is God.

We often take this fundamental truth for granted and allow our heart to go just anywhere and to get attached with just anything and anyone. Its proper place is God, just as St. Augustine once said: “My heart is restless until it rests in you, Lord.”

But given our human condition, with all the concerns that we have, with all the weaknesses and temptations, and even our assets and strengths that many times lead us away from God instead of bringing us to him, we need that special time to remind ourselves that we belong to God, and we need to correspond to that reality.

Our usual problem is that we take this basic truth for granted or, if we know that truth, we do not know what it demands from us, what practical consequences we have to do.

Underlying this problem, of course, is the widespread phenomenon of people, even those who consider themselves very Christian and pious, who fail or who do not know how to input faith into their thinking and behavior.

This is a challenge that we can choose to tackle precisely in the season of Lent. We need to develop the discipline to think, behave and, in fact, to live by faith that always goes together with hope and charity.

We have to step up our literacy in this area, because in spite of some rousing displays of public piety in many places, there is a lot of ignorance, confusion and error regarding the doctrine of our faith, and of course, inconsistency in our Christian and spiritual life.

There is still the naivete in thinking that our faith can only be studied enough, that it can be studied at a certain point, beyond which the duty to study it ceases. Many of us fail to realize that its study is a lifelong process, since it is not only an intellectual exercise and duty. Our faith has to go in real time with our whole life.

For this, what the Lenten season reminds us of is for us to exert the effort to learn the intricacies of the spiritual combat or ascetical struggle, both defending us from the enemies of our soul—sins, temptations, etc..—and proposing us endless goals toward sanctity that only ends in heaven.

We need to fight in many fronts—against our laziness, our pride, sensuality, greed, etc. The model for this is Christ, who is also the source of all the energy and power we need to keep this struggle going.

It would be good to spend some time meditating on the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, in short, the Paschal Mystery, that culminates and summarizes everything that Christ did to save us and to perfect us in our ongoing creation with him.

Lent should be a time to be more theological, spiritual and ascetical!