WE are once again in the season of
Lent. It’s a period of
preparation for the greatest event in the history of mankind—the
passion, death and resurrection of Christ—which we will celebrate
within the Holy Week, from the evening of Holy Thursday to Easter
Sunday.
It’s a period meant to purify ourselves, with the aim of
strengthening us spiritually and morally, and with the view of making
ourselves more and more identified with Christ, who is the very
pattern of our life, “the way, the truth and the life” for us.
We cannot deny that we need some purification because in
spite of our best efforts, we cannot help but get dirtied somehow with
the many and multiplying things we have to handle in the world today.
There are many new things coming up, and our curiosity
gets aroused. We also know that our learning process to grapple with
these new developments will always involve some falls, some mistakes
which can either be small or big.
We need to pause and reflect on the significance of this
period because with all the activities, concerns, not to mention the
challenges and trials of our life, we tend to take Lent for granted
and content ourselves with going through the motions of some
sacrifices just to get by.
Lent is actually a very happy occasion, because in spite
of the fasting and abstinence asked of us on certain days and the
prodding to be generous with all kinds of self-denial and works of
mercy, we are slowly being molded into another Christ, our sole
Redeemer, with whom we also have to redeem ourselves.
Let’s remember that each of us is expected to be a
co-redeemer with Christ. No matter how much Christ wants to save us,
even to the extent of offering his life on the cross, if we do not
correspond to his redeeming will and ways, we will not be saved.
St. Augustine once said: “God made us without us, but he
cannot save us without us.” We have to understand that Lent is a very
good occasion to go through another conversion, another renewal,
another reaffirmation of our commitment to follow Christ faithfully,
so that our redemption becomes a joint effort between Christ and us as
it ought to be.
We should then realize that all those fasting and
abstinence, those acts of self-denial and works of mercy, should leave
us with a growing sensation that we are becoming more and more like
Christ,, thinking, choosing, doing things like him and with him.
Otherwise, all these acts would lose their purpose. They
would just become mechanical, soulless acts, a routine just to pass
the time. We have to make sure that with God’s grace that would always
require of us humility and simplicity and all the virtues, we get the
sensation that we are another Christ.
And we should not be afraid to be so. We should disabuse
ourselves from the fear that by aiming to be another Christ, we would
become proud and vain, feeling superior over others, and falling into
a psychological disorder called messianic complex.
Obviously, all these can happen if we are not careful. But
if we make the effort to correspond to God’s grace always, then we can
be and we can do what Christ was and did. He was humble and simple,
merciful and compassionate. He lived the true spirit of poverty.
He also said that his food was to do the will of his
Father, that he came not to condemn but to save the world. These would
also be the mind that we would have if we grow to become another
Christ.
Like Christ, we would not to be afraid to suffer. We would
be willing to bear the burden of the others. As commanded by Christ
and lived by him, we would know how to love everyone, including those
who consider themselves as our enemies.
We have to see to it that these traits and qualities of
Christ are slowly taking root in our lives. We should feel the need to
pray, like what Christ did also, even waking up early before sunrise
to go a certain place to pray. We should be able to have intimate
conversations with our Father God.
Like Christ, we should do our work well to such an extent
that we can gain that reputation that Christ himself had: “bene omnia
fecit,” he did all things well.
We have to understand Lent as a period of sculpting the
image of the living Christ in us.
preparation for the greatest event in the history of mankind—the
passion, death and resurrection of Christ—which we will celebrate
within the Holy Week, from the evening of Holy Thursday to Easter
Sunday.
It’s a period meant to purify ourselves, with the aim of
strengthening us spiritually and morally, and with the view of making
ourselves more and more identified with Christ, who is the very
pattern of our life, “the way, the truth and the life” for us.
We cannot deny that we need some purification because in
spite of our best efforts, we cannot help but get dirtied somehow with
the many and multiplying things we have to handle in the world today.
There are many new things coming up, and our curiosity
gets aroused. We also know that our learning process to grapple with
these new developments will always involve some falls, some mistakes
which can either be small or big.
We need to pause and reflect on the significance of this
period because with all the activities, concerns, not to mention the
challenges and trials of our life, we tend to take Lent for granted
and content ourselves with going through the motions of some
sacrifices just to get by.
Lent is actually a very happy occasion, because in spite
of the fasting and abstinence asked of us on certain days and the
prodding to be generous with all kinds of self-denial and works of
mercy, we are slowly being molded into another Christ, our sole
Redeemer, with whom we also have to redeem ourselves.
Let’s remember that each of us is expected to be a
co-redeemer with Christ. No matter how much Christ wants to save us,
even to the extent of offering his life on the cross, if we do not
correspond to his redeeming will and ways, we will not be saved.
St. Augustine once said: “God made us without us, but he
cannot save us without us.” We have to understand that Lent is a very
good occasion to go through another conversion, another renewal,
another reaffirmation of our commitment to follow Christ faithfully,
so that our redemption becomes a joint effort between Christ and us as
it ought to be.
We should then realize that all those fasting and
abstinence, those acts of self-denial and works of mercy, should leave
us with a growing sensation that we are becoming more and more like
Christ,, thinking, choosing, doing things like him and with him.
Otherwise, all these acts would lose their purpose. They
would just become mechanical, soulless acts, a routine just to pass
the time. We have to make sure that with God’s grace that would always
require of us humility and simplicity and all the virtues, we get the
sensation that we are another Christ.
And we should not be afraid to be so. We should disabuse
ourselves from the fear that by aiming to be another Christ, we would
become proud and vain, feeling superior over others, and falling into
a psychological disorder called messianic complex.
Obviously, all these can happen if we are not careful. But
if we make the effort to correspond to God’s grace always, then we can
be and we can do what Christ was and did. He was humble and simple,
merciful and compassionate. He lived the true spirit of poverty.
He also said that his food was to do the will of his
Father, that he came not to condemn but to save the world. These would
also be the mind that we would have if we grow to become another
Christ.
Like Christ, we would not to be afraid to suffer. We would
be willing to bear the burden of the others. As commanded by Christ
and lived by him, we would know how to love everyone, including those
who consider themselves as our enemies.
We have to see to it that these traits and qualities of
Christ are slowly taking root in our lives. We should feel the need to
pray, like what Christ did also, even waking up early before sunrise
to go a certain place to pray. We should be able to have intimate
conversations with our Father God.
Like Christ, we should do our work well to such an extent
that we can gain that reputation that Christ himself had: “bene omnia
fecit,” he did all things well.
We have to understand Lent as a period of sculpting the
image of the living Christ in us.
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