FEBRUARY 13 is Ash Wednesday for this year, and with it we start
another liturgical season of Lent. It’s good that we once again relish
the true essence and purpose of the period. We actually need to do
this in any part of the year to capture the spiritual and supernatural
dimensions of our life that we often take for granted.
Pope Benedict XVI has already given out his Lenten message for this
year that zeroes in on the indissoluble relation between faith and
charity. It’s a wonderful message, so characteristic of his very
theological mind, which should not be confined only to intellectuals
and considered in strictly intellectual circuits.
It should be spread far and wide, and be made to penetrate deep and
lasting in the minds and hearts of believers. That’s why we need to
learn how to reflect and meditate, then assimilate what is seen and
understood into attitudes, deeds, skills and virtues, and then learn
how to transmit the things imbibed to others.
In his message, the Pope precisely talks about evangelization as the
greatest work of charity toward others. “There is no action more
beneficial – and therefore more charitable – towards one’s neighbor
than to break the bread of the word of God, to share with him the Good
News of the Gospel, to introduce him to a relationship with God:
evangelization is the highest and the most integral promotion of the
human person.”
There’s a crying need for us to sit down and reflect on these words.
Let’s hope that we can give time to this concern and exert the
appropriate effort to translate these words into life, both personal
and social.
At this time, we cannot afford to be casual and cavalier in this duty.
The world is getting increasingly secularized and paganized, with God
relegated into the sidelines, if not totally banished.
If not that, then God is not considered anymore as the transcendent
God, the Supreme Being who revealed and continues to reveal himself to
us. He is just a human invention. God has become a formalism, a detail
of political correctness.
We are seeing this disturbing phenomenon taking place not only in
individuals but also in institutions and societies, and even
governments, with powerful resources to promote their own idea of God,
the politically correct God.
Lent is a good occasion to go back to God. But we have to understand
that as involving a lot of sacrifice and struggle. Thus, the Pope in
his message says that “Christian life consists in continuously scaling
the mountain to meet God and then coming back down, bearing the love
and strength drawn from him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters
with God’s own love.”
We should look forward to the discipline that Lent encourages us to
live. It is truly good for us. And anyway, we cannot avoid having to
grapple with suffering and ascetical struggle due to our wounded human
nature. And so we really need to learn how to go through the
discipline to prepare ourselves for the challenges of life.
We should see all this as part of the Good News God has given us. It
should make us happy, and not too wary and afraid. We can consider it
as some kind of sport and exercise that require some sacrifice but
actually give us a lot more of benefits.
Truth is we need to learn the ways of spiritual combat, how to deal
with our own weaknesses and do constant battle with the temptations
around. We need to learn how to grow in the virtues, since we usually
tend toward laziness, disorder, imprudence, vanity, pride, gluttony
and lust.
Most of all, we need to learn how to know, love and serve God in a way
that is directly felt and continuously done. All of this requires some
kind of training, planning and a whole range of discipline. There are
stages to go through, and so we need to articulate as clearly and as
specifically the appropriate plans for each stage.
We obviously need to ask for grace always, since it is grace that
should underlie all the efforts. Without it, we cannot go very far in
our spiritual growth. And thus, aside from prayer, we need to avail of
the sacraments, the usual channels for grace to come to us.
Let’s hope that this season of Lent will truly give a big boost in our
spiritual life. If we try to be professional about it also, we should
devise ways to see if indeed such growth has taken place at the end of
Lent.
another liturgical season of Lent. It’s good that we once again relish
the true essence and purpose of the period. We actually need to do
this in any part of the year to capture the spiritual and supernatural
dimensions of our life that we often take for granted.
Pope Benedict XVI has already given out his Lenten message for this
year that zeroes in on the indissoluble relation between faith and
charity. It’s a wonderful message, so characteristic of his very
theological mind, which should not be confined only to intellectuals
and considered in strictly intellectual circuits.
It should be spread far and wide, and be made to penetrate deep and
lasting in the minds and hearts of believers. That’s why we need to
learn how to reflect and meditate, then assimilate what is seen and
understood into attitudes, deeds, skills and virtues, and then learn
how to transmit the things imbibed to others.
In his message, the Pope precisely talks about evangelization as the
greatest work of charity toward others. “There is no action more
beneficial – and therefore more charitable – towards one’s neighbor
than to break the bread of the word of God, to share with him the Good
News of the Gospel, to introduce him to a relationship with God:
evangelization is the highest and the most integral promotion of the
human person.”
There’s a crying need for us to sit down and reflect on these words.
Let’s hope that we can give time to this concern and exert the
appropriate effort to translate these words into life, both personal
and social.
At this time, we cannot afford to be casual and cavalier in this duty.
The world is getting increasingly secularized and paganized, with God
relegated into the sidelines, if not totally banished.
If not that, then God is not considered anymore as the transcendent
God, the Supreme Being who revealed and continues to reveal himself to
us. He is just a human invention. God has become a formalism, a detail
of political correctness.
We are seeing this disturbing phenomenon taking place not only in
individuals but also in institutions and societies, and even
governments, with powerful resources to promote their own idea of God,
the politically correct God.
Lent is a good occasion to go back to God. But we have to understand
that as involving a lot of sacrifice and struggle. Thus, the Pope in
his message says that “Christian life consists in continuously scaling
the mountain to meet God and then coming back down, bearing the love
and strength drawn from him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters
with God’s own love.”
We should look forward to the discipline that Lent encourages us to
live. It is truly good for us. And anyway, we cannot avoid having to
grapple with suffering and ascetical struggle due to our wounded human
nature. And so we really need to learn how to go through the
discipline to prepare ourselves for the challenges of life.
We should see all this as part of the Good News God has given us. It
should make us happy, and not too wary and afraid. We can consider it
as some kind of sport and exercise that require some sacrifice but
actually give us a lot more of benefits.
Truth is we need to learn the ways of spiritual combat, how to deal
with our own weaknesses and do constant battle with the temptations
around. We need to learn how to grow in the virtues, since we usually
tend toward laziness, disorder, imprudence, vanity, pride, gluttony
and lust.
Most of all, we need to learn how to know, love and serve God in a way
that is directly felt and continuously done. All of this requires some
kind of training, planning and a whole range of discipline. There are
stages to go through, and so we need to articulate as clearly and as
specifically the appropriate plans for each stage.
We obviously need to ask for grace always, since it is grace that
should underlie all the efforts. Without it, we cannot go very far in
our spiritual growth. And thus, aside from prayer, we need to avail of
the sacraments, the usual channels for grace to come to us.
Let’s hope that this season of Lent will truly give a big boost in our
spiritual life. If we try to be professional about it also, we should
devise ways to see if indeed such growth has taken place at the end of
Lent.
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