Lent is the springtime of the Church; it is the favorable time that urgently invites us to conversion. It is the great school of the Lord’s disciples.
The change of heart and life
Lent lasts forty days and is the time that precedes and prepares us for the celebration of Easter.
During this time, the Church reminds us of the need to «return to God with all our heart» (cf. Jl 2:12), «following in the footsteps of Jesus» (cf. 1 Pt 2:21).
It is the time when we must allow the Lord to change our hearts, to remove everything that weighs us down, so that we may savor the freshness of evangelical life. Only if we live Lent in this way will Easter truly be a rebirth for each of us.
The two dimensions of Lent: Baptism and Penance
The liturgy of Lent allows us to experience the joy of the gift of Baptism: catechumens through the various stages of Christian initiation; the faithful through the remembrance of Baptism and Penance, so that our lives as believers may recover the requirements and commitments of this Sacrament, which is the foundation of our being Christians. Lent is therefore a journey, a true «baptismal itinerary, in the sense that it helps to keep alive the awareness that being Christian is always realized as becoming Christian anew: it is never a completed story that lies behind us, but a journey that always requires new practice» (Benedict XVI).
Lent thus becomes a vital school of purification and enlightenment, so that we may live by the words of Jesus, repeated at the imposition of the ashes: «Repent and believe in the Gospel» (Mk 1:15). This is the substance of Lenten spirituality.
The means suggested for carrying out this conversion are:
1. deeper listening to the word of God;
2. more intense and prolonged prayer;
3. fasting;
4. works of charity.
1. More assiduous listening to the word of God puts each of us in relationship with Christ. It is the basis of every Christian’s spiritual nourishment. In Scripture, in the Bible, God truly speaks to us! We listen to God speaking to us in order to save us and communicate his life to us in abundance. The Word is not simply written to be read, but to be received within us, in the concrete circumstances of our lives. Saint Jerome teaches us that not knowing Scripture means not knowing Christ. We therefore face a great responsibility. But the opposite is also true: if we know the Scriptures, we know and encounter him. This is a consolation, a great joy!
Let us therefore commit ourselves each day to finding time for silence, to listen to what the Lord says to each of us. This relationship with him is the foundation of our entire spiritual life. The word of God is not a monologue: God awaits from us a response of love, fulfilled by putting his Word into practice. Listening to the Word makes us like Jesus Christ; it teaches us to find, in the events of our lives, the trace of God’s love, his presence and his action with us and in us.
Why not therefore open a page of the Gospel each day and listen to what Jesus wants to communicate to us? His message is always new and bursts into our lives with the intention of renewing them.
2. More intense and prolonged prayer: Saint Teresa of Ávila said that prayer is a conversation with God: «It is nothing other than a relationship of friendship, being frequently alone with the One whom we know loves us». Praying more intensely and frequently during Lent is therefore a way of drawing closer to Jesus, as we do by speaking with a friend; it is sensing that he loves us, is always keeping us company and walks alongside us.
To pray is to encounter God and enter into intimate communion with him. Jesus invites us to be watchful and persevering in prayer, «so that you may not enter into temptation» (Mt 26:41a). Prayer sustains our faithfulness; by praying, we make acts of faith toward God, but we also declare our willingness to do his will. This is the content of Jesus’ prayer in the desert and in Gethsemane.
It is also particularly important to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation with faith and conviction, in order to encounter God’s mercy and once again feel that the Lord continues to trust us; to return to the Eucharist, the love that truly satisfies our hunger for life and happiness; and to commit ourselves to praying the Liturgy of the Hours. This is the Church’s official prayer, although many people do not know it or do not practice it because they consider its structure complicated. This obstacle can easily be overcome with the periodical publication “With Living Water. Morning Prayer, Sext, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer”, which makes this prayer accessible to everyone. It is the most important prayer after Holy Mass; all one has to do is go to the current date, where step by step one finds what is to be prayed. By praying the Liturgy of the Hours, we sanctify the entire course of the day with prayer!
3. Fasting - together with prayer, almsgiving and other works of charity - has always belonged to the life and penitential practice of the Church. Indeed, it responds to the Christian’s constant need for conversion to the kingdom of God, for asking forgiveness for sins, for imploring divine help, and for giving thanks and praise to the Father. Conversion to God is always expressed in conversion to fraternal love (1 Jn 4:20-21). Victory over our selfishness must make us available to the needs of the poor. This is one result of fasting: making God’s presence manifest to those in need.
Fasting is not merely abstaining from particular foods such as chocolate, cured meats, coffee and everything that comforts us in the hardships of daily life; it also means knowing how to limit our worst vices, such as gossip, contentiousness, aggressiveness, greed and so on, remembering that what offends another offends Jesus.
By proposing fasting during Lent, the Church demonstrates great wisdom, since it leads every Christian to examine the relationship between their body, its properly understood needs, and the overall meaning of life and its true values; by fasting with the heart, we experience joy and peace.
Fasting «constitutes an important opportunity for growth», Pope Francis says, because «it allows us to experience what those who lack even what is strictly necessary go through» and «makes us more attentive to God and our neighbor», awakening «the will to obey God, who alone satisfies our hunger». Fasting is therefore linked to works of charity.
4. Works of charity, in the light of the word of God, which continually reminds the Christian community gathered in assembly of the rights «of the stranger, the orphan and the widow», are the gesture through which Christians, aware of their responsibility toward the world in which they live, often marked by injustices that create misery, allow themselves to be touched by the fragility of others.
«What, indeed, is the fast that I desire - says the Lord - if not to break unjust chains, set the oppressed free, welcome the stranger…», echoed by Peter’s words: «Be ashamed, you who keep what belongs to others; imitate divine goodness instead, and then no one will be poor».
Works of charity help us understand that our fundamental attitude toward others must be one of love. To love our neighbor as ourselves, the greatest commandment, is the most difficult to put into practice because it presupposes abandoning selfishness, the root of every human vice. Here too Jesus comes to our aid: he took on our weakness and invites us to remain united with him so that we may love others with his heart, or at least try. Only concrete actions, in fact, demonstrate that the word of God is changing the logic of believers’ lives. In our lives, fasting means giving up what fills the stomach but does not satisfy the heart. Thus the Eucharistic bread broken on the assembly’s table leads the community to “break open its life” and make it a gift, according to the measure of charity granted to each person by the Spirit of God.
The liturgy
As in Advent, during Lent the liturgy also presents certain signs which, in their simplicity, help us better understand the meaning of this season.
During Lent, the liturgical color of the priest’s vestments is violet, recalling a sincere journey of penance and conversion. On the fourth Sunday, the so-called “Laetare” Sunday, the liturgical vestments are rose-colored. This indicates a period of respite amid a penitential season.
During celebrations, moreover, we no longer find flowers adorning the altar, we do not recite the “Gloria”, which is said instead on solemnities and feasts, and we do not sing the Alleluia.
The Gospels of Lent
In this year’s liturgical journey through “Cycle B”, we are accompanied by Mark, described by some scholars as the “photographer” evangelist. Indeed, he often uses the present tense when narrating a past event: he tells it as if he were seeing the events he describes at that moment (Nazzareno Marconi). Mark presents us with the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth, who spreads around him the Good News concerning himself.
During Lent, in the Sunday readings, we encounter Mark’s Gospel only on the first two Sundays, which present again the corresponding themes of Cycle A: Jesus’ temptations in the desert and the transfiguration of Christ, the beloved Son.
On the third, fourth and fifth Sundays, several episodes from Jesus’ ministry are presented, with a clear reference to his “hour”, drawn from the Gospel of John.
The cross
The cross is a central sign of this Lenten season. It can be simple, made of wood, without the Crucifix and without decorations. It must be large enough to be seen by the entire assembly, but not too large or too heavy, so that the priest can carry it comfortably in penitential processions and the Way of the Cross. It enters the church in the penitential procession on Ash Wednesday. From then on, it may be placed on a base in a clearly visible location throughout Lent.
The cross, without the Crucifix, reminds the faithful that it is necessary to be crucified with Christ in order to share in his glory. Indeed, «this saying is trustworthy: if we have died with him, we will also live with him» (2 Tim 2:11).
After symbolically guiding the Lenten journey of the pilgrim people, the cross takes leave of them from the Fifth Sunday of Lent, on the threshold of Holy Week, when it will be veiled until Good Friday, when attention will turn to the Crucifix, which will be suitably displayed for the adoration of the faithful. Five lamps may be lit near the cross, recalling the Lord’s five wounds and the Church’s growing love for and adherence to the mystery of the crucified Christ.
Meditation on the Passion
The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ is narrated in the Gospels by Matthew (26:14 - 27:66), Mark (14:1 - 15:47), Luke (22:14 - 23:56) and John (18:1-19:42); traditionally, it is read in dialogued form and in its entirety on Palm Sunday and Good Friday.
During Lent, it is good to meditate assiduously on the Lord’s Passion, allowing his own feelings of love to enter our hearts. Saint Albert the Great says that one hour of meditation on the Lord’s Passion is worth more than a Lent of bread and water. The expression is highly significant. Indeed, nothing stimulates love for the Lord more than contemplating the merciful love Christ has shown us. Meditation on the Lord’s Passion leads us to consider ourselves small, to be humble, and to try in some way to repay what he has done for us.
Throughout the Church’s millennia-long history, Jesus has enlightened certain mystics, such as Anna Katharina Emmerick and Camilla Battista da Varano, providing details about this important and dramatic event that changed human history. A sacrifice of love that has transcended the centuries and is still capable of moving and converting anyone today.
Let us not allow this favorable time to pass in vain! May the Holy Spirit guide us in undertaking a true journey of conversion, so that we may rediscover the gift of the word of God, be purified from the sin that blinds us, and serve Christ present in our brothers and sisters in need.
Have a fruitful journey!
