Encouragement for the Lenten Journey
By Fr. John Roderick, F.S.C.B.
February, 2024
The week prior to Lent this year was saturated with news of the greatly anticipated Superbowl between the Chiefs and the Forty-Niners. While listening to the Altitude Sports station on my way to the hospital, God inspired me to ask myself the following question, “Fr. John, do you desire the beginning of Lent with the same passion as the Superbowl?” Being honest before the Lord, I had to quietly say, “No.” I felt a little sad for forgetting what the center of my life is. Since then, I’ve seen God working on my heart and reminding me that the outcome of the Superbowl is not that important at all compared to the Lenten journey that will prepare me to celebrate and relive the most important events in Jesus’ life. The mystery of Easter is the single most important fact that defines my life and that of the whole world. For this reason, the Lenten season is an amazing gift that will lead us to the truth of the relationship between God and all of humanity.
In this reflection, I would like to share a few aspects of the Lenten journey that will hopefully act as a type of roadmap that can be a guide during this difficult but beautiful pilgrimage.
What is Lent? The word Lent comes from the Latin word quadragesima, which means forty. The period of forty days or years is very significant in the entirety of the Sacred Scriptures, where it represents a time of testing and maturing and the approximate length of a generation. For example, we can remember 1) The forty days and forty nights of Noah in the Ark (Gen 7:4); 2) The forty days Moses remained on Mount Sinai before receiving the Ten Commandments (Ex 34:28); 3) The forty years the Israelites wandered in the desert before entering the Promised Land (Deut 8:2); and 4) in the New Testament, the forty days Jesus fasted and prayed in the desert while being tempted by the devil prior to the beginning of his public ministry (Mt 4). For Christians, in imitation of Christ, it is a time of spiritual renewal and conversion in preparation for the celebration of Holy Week and Easter.
Return to me with your whole heart. On Ash Wednesday, the liturgy gives us a beautiful reading from the prophet Joel that lays the foundation for the Lenten season. The prophet Joel, speaking for God, invites all of God’s people to “Return to me with your whole heart” (Joel 2:12). These words are also directed to each of us. The purpose of Lent is to respond to God’s invitation to return to him. God is passionately interested in each of us. He wants our hearts to return to Him. He does not want us to return for a little bit or for a short time. He is interested in our whole hearts and lives. For this reason, Lent is considered a privileged time of conversion, a time to change the direction of our life, to leave behind the ways of the world, and to try to follow the ways and example of Jesus. God takes the initiative towards each of us as we begin our Lenten journey.
Take up the cross. At the very beginning of Jesus’ teaching, he tells his disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Oftentimes, we forget this difficult verse. Jesus desires for his friends to follow Him completely. There is no discipleship or friendship with the Lord that does not pass directly through daily self-denial and the cross. The Lenten period is a special gift to all the followers of Christ and a reminder that we have to accept and follow the totality of his life, and not merely the parts we more readily like. The Christian life is a calling, a vocation, by the Lord to personalize our imitation and following of Him.
Go to the Desert. The Lenten pilgrimage is an invitation to follow Jesus into the desert. On the First Sunday of Lent, we hear the story of Jesus going to the desert for forty days to pray and fast while being tempted by the devil. The desert is a very difficult place to live, characterized by great heat and scarce resources. It is also a place of silence and solitude. Our hearts and our lives are called to go to the desert with Christ and, just like our Lord, battle the temptations of the devil. While we may not go physically to a desert like Christ, we are invited into a spiritual desert. The spiritual desert is the place of the recognition of our complete dependence on God and that our freedom comes only from being in relationship with Him. The Church invites us spiritually to enter the desert every year through the three pillars of prayer, self-denial, and acts of mercy. Concretely, we could live this as an invitation to limit the noise and distraction in our lives by consciously being more intentional with our use of technology.
God’s initiative. The prophet Ezekiel will remind us during our Lenten pilgrimage of God’s desire to be the protagonist in our effort to change our lives and convert, “I will sprinkle water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts” (Ez 36:25-27). When, through the failure to love God and our neighbor, we distance ourselves from Him, our hearts lose their life and become hard like stones. However, our stony hearts are the privileged place where God wants to work by remolding them with His gentle and tender healing hands of mercy.
It is not easy to let ourselves be forgiven and made clean by Jesus. We often struggle like Peter who at the Last Supper refused to let Jesus wash his feet. We are very often stuck in the pride and stubbornness of not wanting to let ourselves be cleansed by the Lord. John the Evangelist reminds us that if we want to have any part and inheritance of Jesus, we must accept His divine mercy and desire to wash and make us clean (John 13). Let us pray for the simplicity of heart to let ourselves be forgiven and made clean by Jesus.
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” On the second Sunday of Lent, we hear the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus is transfigured on the mountain in front of his disciples Peter, James, and John, and the Father speaks these words to them: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” The Father’s message is an invitation for all of Jesus’ friends through all the ages: listen to my Son! These forty days are a privileged time to remember our need to be silent and make space to hear God’s word. He desires to speak to each and everyone of us personally. The Lenten liturgy will often recall the important verse from the Gospel, “One does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). These words are an invitation to recognize that we cannot truly live the Christian life without being nourished by God’s word that speaks to us personally in the sacraments, in the Christian community and our personal lives of prayer.
Love. The Lenten season, which prepares us for Easter, reveals to us, above all, God’s infinite and merciful love toward humanity. John the Evangelist recalls this important point when he writes, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). It is not merely a historical fact of two thousand years ago, but a fact which remains present in the life of the Church. After washing his friends’ feet, Jesus invites his closest friends to follow his example, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (Jn 13:15). Jesus desires to introduce them into his way of loving and serving the Father and his neighbor. He is essentially revealing to them that the meaning of life is a gradual entering into His love and service for all humanity. Jesus describes this newness: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34). Let us ask Jesus how we can more fully and freely participate in his Love this Lent.
Perseverance in the Journey. As we continue our pilgrimage through Lent, let us not be discouraged if we have gotten off to a rocky start or a slow one! This season is paradigmatic for the whole Christian life. With God, we can always start again. We are invited every day during this season to renew our ‘yes’ for Christ, which is the truth of who we are as His redeemed children. Let us renew our efforts to follow Christ and His Church through prayer, fasting and acts of mercy so we can celebrate more deeply the greatest victory of all: His glorious resurrection from the dead. This is the greatest news there is!
