OK, so you have come, you’ve had blessed ashes placed on your forehead, you may have remembered you are not to eat meat today, and if you are from ages 21 to 59, you have to “fast” today , whatever that might mean. Not a great thought when you are still trying to deal with all this snow and stuff, and remember making some nice meals and pigging our on “junk food” while stuck at home. So, what now? Oh yeah, its’s Lent, it kind of “snuck up” on me again, as it seems to do year after year. Doesn’t Lent require some kind of penance? What can I “give up”? Pepsi, chocolate cake, smoking (again!)??? Does that make God happy, or just my doctors? Why does the church do this to us every year?

..........Good question! Probably the right question, though poorly phrased. So let’s try to find the answer. The heart of our Christian Faith is the resurrection, Easter, the new life that is ours through Jesus, the Savior we cried out for in Advent and whose coming we rejoiced in at Christmas. But Easter is the greatest feast in Christianity. “If Christ is not risen, then our faith is in vain,” St. Paul told us. Long before Lent was developed, the church’s focus was properly on Easter. There was a solemn fasting for the three days before Easter (those days called “The Triduum”: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, as we named them).

The Church’s focus was on the Solemn Easter Vigil, which began toward midnight on Holy Saturday and climaxed at sunrise (Son Rise) on Easter morning. During the night, nine lessons from Scripture were proclaimed, all focusing on Salvation History, how the promises God made to His sin-wounded people were fulfilled in the death and Resurrection of Jesus. And then, new members, adults and children, were initiated into that Mystery, that new life, by being baptized at the Vigil. In the early practice of the church, the Easter Vigil was the only time during the year when the church baptized. So we can see how it might take all night, between the Scripture, the mini-sermons preached after the nine readings, and the baptisms!

So, while the Church’s practice evolved into baptizing more frequently and thus the Liturgy of the Word at the Easter Vigil shortened, our focus is still EASTER. “If Christ is not risen, then our faith is in vain.”
Other spiritual developments evolved and entered into the picture over the years. The practice of the “forty days of Lent” developed, paralleling that forty day period when Jesus was in the desert and faced the temptations of Satan, the Devil, the Liar and Deceiver. (Can’t we all say “amen” to that reality!) The scene of Jesus’ being tempted is always the Gospel that is read on the first Sunday of Lent, just so we don’t miss that pivotal point, the reality of temptation and sin. But think of the link here.

When we are baptized, we speak {or our parents and Godparents speak for us, a renewal of} our baptismal vows, when we renounce Satan and all his empty works and promises. Jesus’ rejection of Satan, and our needing to imitate Jesus in that regard, link us to baptism. (Just as it is on the second Sunday of Lent, when Jesus is transfigured on the mountain, and we glimpse His Glory, a reminder of the Glory of the new life that is offered us through our baptism and faithful following of Jesus, first to Calvary, to be sure, but then to resurrection and new life!) “No crown before the cross,” as preachers proclaim. But they do not make that up; they get it from looking at Jesus, and what discipleship means.

So, the focus of Lent is EASTER. Why, then, do these other things like fasting, penance, prayer and almsgiving enter in? Well, our church wants to keep us on track, keep us focused on EASTER. The new life of Easter celebrates our embrace of the Risen Jesus and His ways. Remember the scene in St. John’s Gospel (chapter 20 for those who want to read it) when the Risen Jesus appears on that first Easter Sunday evening to His Apostles, who are locked away in the upper room out of fear that they will be the next ones to be arrested by the religious authorities. They fear that what just happened to Jesus will happen to them. Not too far fetched, if you think about it. Knock off the leader, and the rest will fall. But Jesus appears to them, speaks the words “Peace be with you,” and repeats the words just in case they think they are hearing things! He then breathes on them as He says “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit that will energize them (and us disciples down through the centuries) is the Spirit of Jesus, given so we can live and love as Jesus did.

But there’s one small problem. We aren’t Jesus. Even after our baptism, when His Spirit is poured into us in that sacred bath, we do not live the life of Jesus. We fail, fall short, and sin. We choose OUR ways rather than His way. Isn’t it interesting that a child learns to say NO before that child says YES! Where did that come from? We want our way, when we want it, and how we want it. If our way is not the way of Jesus, that is called sin, our rebellion, our stubborn refusal to live God’s way.

So our church calls us to change our thinking and living. A few years ago, the church was given another option of what to say when the blessed ashes were placed upon our foreheads. Instead of the tried and true “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return,” we could say instead, “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” Lent is that special, sacred space and time that we have, to turn away from our sinful ways and turn back toward Jesus and His ways. We know that we need to do so. But HOW?

The Church reminds us of traditional, Biblical ways of showing our repentance and our desire to become like Jesus: fasting, prayer, penance, almsgiving. We turn to fasting. The “official church rules” on fasting have devolved into almost nothing. Catholics from 21 to 59 years of age are asked to fast, no longer 40 days, but just 2 days a year: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. That means one full meal, when we can still eat as much as we wish, and if we choose to eat two other meals, we are asked to be sure they are very small at best. Nothing, of course, in between meals. The fast days also do not allow for meat, nor do any of the other Fridays of Lent, for Catholics 14 and over. Quite different from the “old days”, when every Friday of the year was “fish day”, and calendars were printed with a fish through the date of every Friday in the year. The whole world knew what Catholic practice was!

The church has suggested that we need to develop our own fasting practice, not necessarily in terms of food, but in terms of that conduct that keeps us from the full life of Jesus. It may be a fast from gossip, greed, jealousy, selfishness, laziness, or blindness to those in need who are all around us. We fast, therefore, from sin and stay away from the occasions of sin, so we can choose Jesus again and again. We give alms, a Biblical activity that reflects a penitent and dependent spirit. We today use the parish’s self-denial coin folders, and we target our giving to go to our sister parish in Haiti; to the Jesuit high school in Nairobi, Kenya, which serves orphaned children who lost one or both parents to AIDS; and the Little Sisters of the Poor, who give such excellent care to Deacon Phil, that they might continue to purchase needed hospital beds to assist their bed-ridden residents. Of course, you are not limited to almsgiving just through the parish’s folders. You might want to reach out to other needs. You might want to consider more deeply the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal, especially if you have not participated in the past. That appeal can do in a combined way what we individually or even as a parish could never do. It helps create the Living, Loving Body of Christ in action. Our giving gives God a good name.

Then there are prayer and Mass attendance. Please do not see these as forms of penance! They are the constant building blocks of your spirituality. We have a responsibility to worship the Lord. We do’t come on Sundays to “get our blessings,” as so many people characterize the reason for coming to church today. We come to hear God’s Word; to find out, as one person said, “what God is up to today”. His Word will tell us. We come also so that we might approach in faith the Table of the Lord, share His marvelous meal, the very Body and Blood of Christ, and be strengthened by that Food to respond in courageous faith to God’s Living Word. We also need our private prayer life, our time to read the Word, our time just to sit and talk with the Lord, and listen as the Lord will surely reply to us. Coming to Mass each week is NOT a penance, even though sadly some people act like it is. To be blunt, we owe that to God, not in a grudging way, but because our participation shows that we understand who we are and whose we are. We take God seriously, because God takes us seriously.

And then there is penance. There is a value in self-discipline. Ask any Olympic athlete, especially those who stand on the winner’s podium. Ask any successful graduate. We do something or give up something for the value of the discipline, especially if it is something we love to do. That’s where the old “what did you give up for Lent?” question came from. Pepsi, Coke, dessert, potato chips, candy — and the list could go on endlessly. But is that what God is looking for? What do we need to give up? “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel!” We hear that call on Ash Wednesday. Give up sin. But what? How? Choose as a penance something that you can realistically do, with some sacrifice and effort. Lenten penance gets treated by many as “Round Two” of New Year’s resolutions. Did you make any of those resolutions this year? Can you even remember them, seven weeks later? Most have long since been broken and tossed aside. Maybe next year! But let us during Lent focus on our sin. What has to die in me, if Jesus is to rise up anew at Easter? Your first reaction to your choice ought to be “Ouch!”, because sacrifice and penance are painful. But that’s when you know you have nailed it, chosen correctly. Let these forty days of Lent become a spiritual incubator, giving birth to the new life of Jesus Christ rising up in you.

Your parish wants to help, so each week when you come to Mass, the holy water fonts will be empty. No water in there, but in its place a new purple card each week, that will give you another insight into what this particular week of Lent might be suggesting to you in the Scriptures assigned to that Sunday of Lent. The card will help you focus on Easter, baptism, the renewal of your own baptismal promises which you will renew at Easter, and the new life that comes to birth in you, because Jesus is living in your spirit in a fresh and new way throughout these forty days. . “Jesus is risen and alive in me!!!” I can almost hear you now, shouting that at Easter. Easter of 2010 can be better for you than any Easter you have ever experienced, if you just follow the directions that have been outlined here. Happy Lent!!!