The Three Reasons Why I Need Lent This Year

Like it or not, Lent is on its way!   As Roman Catholics, we just kind of ‘sense’ that Lent should be around the corner:  it’s winter, cold outside, Christmas and all its beautiful lights and customs are well past us, and before Mother Earth greens up with shrubs and sprouting flowers, we just have to be smacked by Lent.   It’s in our Catholic DNA. And so, in just a few weeks, beginning with Ash Wednesday on February 18, we as a Church will begin our 40 days of Lent.

Giovanni Bellini, “Resurrection of Christ,” 1475-79, oil on panel transferred to canvas, 58 1/4 x 50 in, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany

Our Order for the Celebration of Mass, in Latin, our Ordo booklet, defines this unique season in our Church year:

Lent is ordered to preparing for the celebration of Easter, since the Lenten liturgy prepares for the celebration of the Paschal Mystery for 1) catechumens, by the various stages of Christian initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist), and 2) the faithful who recall their own Baptism and do penance.

Since the majority of good folks, like you, reading this right now are ‘the faithful,’ those already baptised and initiated into the Church, I’ll share with you my need for Lent this time around.  And I stress THIS year, my NEED for Lent that might resonate in your own minds and hearts as you prepare for Lent and journey in the desert called by the Holy Spirit in the footsteps of Jesus.

Thus, on the First Sunday of Lent, we will hear proclaimed by Priest or Deacon, the familiar opening lines of Matthew’s Gospel, ‘At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil’. (Matt 4:1)   This one simple, succinct and clear line of Scripture will hopefully draw me once again into the desert;  a place that speaks of solitude, quiet, apartness.   I will seek to be led by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit,  that I might come and connect with the devil, the demon of darkness, whose goal is to further lead me to darkness.  The devil only knows darkness.  And so it is by temptation that the demon seeks to bring me, a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, into the fullness of darkness.  For my part, I must find the time and the space to allow this all to happen as Jesus himself did, so I can face my own demons and be truly honest about those events, situations and people I in turn demonize.  That’s correct.  Those individuals, I see as evil for me, I judge as going astray and simply being wrong, I too demonize.  I notice myself, more and more these days, judging and demonizing others around me.  All this because I judge them as being on the wrong side of truth, justice, and the American way!   

Thus, I NEED Lent this year, because I’ve been realising, in the past months, even past years, so much more a need to judge the evil surrounding me rather than the good.  How much more, feeling negative about people and events rather than seeing the Creator’s blessed hand in these same people and common events.   I no longer just want Lent or wish to accept Lent as just another period of our Church Year when I give up something and let it go at that.  And because this gnawing sense of evil in the pit of my stomach against people, politics, events drives me to see this Lent as a time to face my own demons and take steps on how to be one with my Lord, and in turn, one with my brothers and sisters.  

From Judgment to Listening: Three Steps Toward an Honest Lent

How often do I hear how ‘polarized’ we’ve become as Americans?   How ‘polarized’ have I noticed myself becoming as a priest and as a member within my brotherly Vincentian community, as a member of even my own family?  How I often feel the need ‘to take sides’ or being forced ‘to take sides’, something I did not notice in years past.  And because of this seeming reality, I need this special time of year for prayer, penance and acts of mercy, all the while listening to the Holy Spirit who has led me to these special forty days.

So, what are the three things I need from my Lent this year?  I list them here for myself with the hope you will be guided to see for yourself where the Lord is leading you.   I’m coming to realize my need:

1) To name my demons.  What is it I’m thinking, doing, having opinions about, saying and not saying, that are just not right?   How have I been leaning towards the darkness rather than the Light which will be celebrated at Easter? 

2) To name the people I demonize.  Because of what I hear come out from their mouths, what are the situations and events I tend to stay away from because I’ve judged it’s not what I want to hear or be around or pay attention to?  I know I need to listen even when I’ve judged it to be wrong, demonized it, and demonized the people who say it.  Not listening, in my mind, is the first step of facing brick walls with folded arms never outstretched and ears only closed and cottoned.  And having listened, what am I now being led to think, consider, and do?

3) To seek penance.   Can I accept from the mouths of those I see as my demons, any speck of truth which might draw me to better understand and engage in their world of truth.  Since Lent is, for the baptized, a special time for penance, can I make better use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and a willingness to live some kind of synodal presence in my everyday events of meals, gatherings in small and larger groups, and common and private prayer?  

Listen, then act.  Maybe that too is why we begin Lent being signed with blessed ashes since our Creator first formed us from the mud of the earth.  ‘Remember you are dust…’  And maybe that is why we have all been lovingly moulded with two ears and one mouth.