THE POINT OF LENT
“Grant, almighty God,
through the yearly observances of holy Lent,
that we may grow in understanding
of the riches hidden in Christ
and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.”
-Roman Missal, Collect (or Opening Prayer) of the Mass of the First Sunday of Lent
The prayers of the Lenten season point like a thousand pointing fingers towards the love of the heart of Christ revealed in all the mysteries of our redemption, beginning with the Lord’s forty-day temptation in the wilderness. The above prayer which gathers our scattered hearts and catapults us into the true meaning of Lent is worth pondering and praying. In it we ask that Lent be a time of growth in understanding and worthy conduct and that it may be truly efficacious, which is to say, effective or transformative.
As we set out by means of these yearly observances of prayer and spiritual struggle, fasting and bodily discipline, and almsgiving and generosity, let us be bold rather than stingy with the Lord. The point of Lent is none other than the Cross of Christ and that it may find its way in us. He endured it for us and our salvation, but also that we would follow Him: “For to this [we] have been called, because Christ suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example that [we] should follow in his footsteps” (1 Peter 2:21). He was tempted and overcame the wily tempter for us, but also so that we should overcome in and with Him the temptations that we face. He prayed for us that we might pray in imitation and union with Him. He fasted for us and thereby gave us an example of fasting. He undertook the works of mercy towards us to provide for us a reminder that we will only find ourselves by giving ourselves away in self-emptying love.
The reason we should repeat the Stations of the Cross again and again throughout this sacred season is that we might truly learn to follow Him and imitate Him. May we not remain stubbornly the same but may this season of Lent see us changed, converted and made new!
One of my simple recommendations for Lent is to read the Gospel according to St. Mark straight through. As you read it notice what G.K. Chesterton observed just over a hundred years ago in his classic biography of St. Francis of Assisi who embodied so profoundly what it means to pursue the riches hidden in Christ: “You will not be able rationally to read the Gospel and regard the Crucifixion as an afterthought or an anti-climax or an accident in the life of Christ; it is obviously the point of the story like the point of a sword, the sword that pierced the heart of the Mother of God.”
Mary will be with us along our Lenten pilgrimage to the Cross helping us to know the point of Lent, the point of our lives, the point of it all. And as we experience the inevitable and painful point of the Cross, she will teach us not to draw back or become reluctant but to follow Christ all the way to Calvary.
One of our stops along the Lenten way is our annual Forty Hours Devotion which takes place this year from March 1-3. This long-standing parish tradition is truly one of the watershed graces of our entire year of activities. It is our time as a parish to draw close to Jesus in the Eucharist. Plan to commit to one or more committed hours of adoration and attend both the Opening Mass and Solemn Closing if you are able.
Blessed Lent!
-Fr. Howe