What is Lent? Certainly it is an easy question to answer, it is the 40 days of fasting, prayer and alms giving, which lead up to the joyous celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ on Easter. But isn’t it more than that? Or is it as simple as prayer, fasting and alms giving?
During Lent we are constantly reminded that we need to “Return to God.” Jesus is constantly inviting us through the scriptures of the Lenten season to come back to him with all our hearts, putting all of our fears aside. It is through that prayer, fasting and alms giving which we can fully embrace our Lord and return to Him. Every year we are reminded or perhaps it has become habitual, which in that case, in my opinion it loses it’s meaning, to give something up. Every year around this time of year my Mom likes to remind me about this and says she has a list of things I can give up, which is fine and dandy, but for me, giving something up is a time in which you can constantly die unto yourself. So you may ask, well what can you possibly be giving up? It’s not for you to know, nor is it my business to know what you are giving up, that covenant, if you will, is truly between me (or you) and God. The Gospel on Ash Wednesday reminds us of this. We should not sound the trumpet and say we are fasting; rather we should go into a private room and close the door, that is real fasting, that is really dying unto oneself.
However, to put a spin on this “typical” Lenten fast, I wonder if Lent is also not a time for us to GIVE as well as give up. We are a church who is missionary, we are called to spread the Gospel and look out for our fellow man. That is why as Catholics we have the Corporal Works of Mercy. We are called to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit those in prison and bury the dead, to bring the “goods” of life to those who do not know them or have access to them. Perhaps now it is time for us to actually begin to live those works of mercy out in our everyday lives. Knowing this, it then becomes our moral responsibility to aide others in gaining those “goods” whatever they may be. We are all called to action. We are all called to gain that lasting happiness through attaining the “ultimate good.” Jesus addresses this question in his sermon on the mount. The beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness that God has placed in every heart. They teach us the final end to which God calls us, entering into the joy of the Lord and into his rest. Jesus' beatitudes also confront us with decisive choices concerning the life we pursue here on earth and the use we make of the goods he puts at our disposal. The beatitudes which Jesus offers us are a sign of contradiction to today’s world's understanding of happiness and joy. How can one possibly find happiness in poverty, mourning, and persecution?
Jesus promises his disciples that the joys of heaven will more than compensate for the troubles and hardships they can expect in this world. Lent should not be a dark, dreary, gloomy time, it should be a time when we can begin to turn our poverty into growth, our mourning into dancing, and our persecution, well our persecution is truly blessed, because it is when wicked tongues insult and hate us, that we are truly seeing Christ. Christ was persecuted for us, and so we too, this Lent, should be persecuted for Christ, living out the Gospel, living out our faith for all to see, so that others, not only us, can begin to return to God!
