Some Thoughts As We Begin Lent

Lent for you will mainly be what you choose and work to make of it. Simply going through a liturgical season, without active involvement, without thoughts and choices and actions on your part, will do very little for your spiritual life. If you wish to grow in grace, to become more truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, then you must “change your ways,” and undergo real disciplines of body and mind. Is there one of us in our parishes who is truly ready to meet the LORD “face to face”? Well, we stand warned in the Scriptures: “Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.” Repentance—understood as a real change of life—is something that you and I must do here and now.   There is an old Latin saying, “Look to the end.” Before undertaking a task, know your goal, be aware of what you are aiming for, or else your actions will be more or less random, haphazard. As we begin Lent, there are two ends which we need to keep in mind: the end of the “journey of Lent,” which is Easter; and the end of the “journey of Life,” which is union with God beyond death. The second end is the greater, and the end that a spiritually alive, healthy human being must keep in mind daily: “Prepare to meet your God.”  As Lent unfolds, we need to keep in mind these two ends: that the liturgies and Scriptures are moving us towards a joyful celebration of Easter, “with heart and mind renewed.” And we must keep in mind why we must change, why we willingly undergo “the discipline of Lent.” We deny ourselves some food, drink, rest, entertainment, shopping, and so on, in order to give more thought for our final end. God is drawing us day by day to the Easter that has no end, to Life beyond the flow and ebb of time, into the eternal Now. God is not drawing us primarily to liturgical celebrations and religious practices, but to Himself. Each of us needs to be mindful of this ultimate End. As Lent begins, each of us would do well to ask ourselves a few questions in the silence of our hearts: Why am I here? Why do I exist? What is the meaning of my life? How well am I truly living a life of faith and love of God? Do I show my discipleship of Jesus Christ by how I am living? What do I need to change, in order to become more like Christ, or at least a more noble, self-giving disciple? How is the grace of God being offered to me today? What is God’s grace, and how does one worthily receive it? What is God asking of me that I should not put off? Am I really engaged in a process of conversion, or do I secretly think that I have “arrived,” that I am “part of the church” and therefore beyond God’s demand to change my ways?   Given our common liturgical practices during Lent, each of us could ask ourselves a few more pointed questions: Do I take time to read over the Scriptures at Mass before they are read, and before the homily? Do I make a real effort to think about what was read and preached at Mass, or do I let the teachings “go in one ear and out the other”?  Do I try to come into church before the celebration begins, to quiet myself, and prepare to enter into Christ’s Word and Sacrifice more wholeheartedly? Do I really renounce my sinful ways, and ask for divine correction? Or am I just going through the motions of being a “good Catholic”?