BY

SR. JANET WAZIRI, O.L.F

REFLECTIONS

Introduction:

The Lenten season is a period in the Church’s calendar when we are called in a very special way to be in touch with our true selves and reflect more deeply on our life and mission. At this time we are called to make the most difficult journey ever; the journey inward. We are expected to retreat in order to see where we are coming from, where we are and where we are going. This is meant to help us to see where we are doing well, be grateful and seek the grace to continue; and then see where we have gone wrong, ask for pardon and strive to do better. “Our Lord bowed His head at death, so that He might give the kiss of peace to His beloved ones. And we give a kiss to God every time our heart is filled with repentance and love” (St. Augustine of Hippo).

Getting Refreshment in the season of Lent:

“We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:9-10)

In order to help us to achieve this goal, the Church in her wisdom puts at the core of this season the history of our salvation. As we reflect on our lives and mission vis-à-vis our salvation history, we are encouraged to do things that would help us to make this important journey inward. In addition to our personal discovery of the things that would help us, the Church (our beloved mother) puts forward some elements that she knows would assist us and also gain graces for us. They are:

• Prayer.
• Fasting.
• Almsgiving.

The Church, as a good mother wants only the best for her beloved children. She does not want her children to wander about therefore; she tries to guide them at every stage so that they can achieve the purpose of their existence. A good mother cannot lead her children to destruction and so even if the children do not understand, she does not hesitate to give them the best with the hope that they would understand later in life. A good mother knows each of her children with their abilities and so she cannot tell any of them to do what they cannot do. Therefore, our mother is not asking us to do what we are unable to do.

However, when she tells us to pray, fast and give alms during lent; does she by any means imply that we should not do these things at any other time within the year? What does she really mean when she stresses these pillars during the Lenten season?She means that we should be more conscious and do it even more than any other time since it is a period when we reflect on Jesus’ love and self – giving.

• PRAYER:Prayer is a way of life. To pray is to live and to live is to pray. A prayer less life is as good as death. This explains why the Lord and our elder brother Paul stressed the need for continuous prayer.

“Then he (Jesus) told them a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart…….” (Luke 18:1-8).“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, Romans 12:12, Ephesians 6:18, Colossians 4:2, 1Timothy 5:5).

“Pray always – here is what these words mean: Either prayer must be on our lips to ask for some grace. Or it must be in our heart in the desire for this grace. Or it must be in our works, which are a preparation for efficacious prayer” (St. Bonaventure).

At the beginning of his public ministry, the Lord went to the desert to pray (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13). Does it mean that prior to that he was not praying? During his life here on earth the Lord often sneaked to a lonely place to pray (Luke 5:16, 6:12, 9:28, Mark 1:35). Even though Jesus’ whole life was a life of prayer because he was always in communion with the father, he found time to be in a lonely place in order to pray. For us his followers, we need that desert experience; we need the time to be in a lonely place with our God. It is only in the desert that we would discover God and ourselves in such a way that we would find it difficult to go back to our sinful ways. The peace and joy that comes from that experience is such that can be described only by those who experienced it.

St. Paul, the first hermit sought refuge in the desert of Egypt during the persecution of Decius and Valerianus (around AD 250) and on discovering God and himself in solitude he never went back to the city even when it was safe to go back. He got so deeply in love with the Lord Jesus that he neither wanted to be distracted nor miss the experience and so he remained in the desert for the rest of his life.

St. Anthony the great, (Anthony of Egypt) shared his inheritance to the poor and went to live in a cave in the desert of Egypt and he got so engrossed that God sent a raven to give him half a loaf of bread every evening to break his fast.Many others also had the same experience which made them to remain in the desert all their lives.

Literally, we cannot all go to live in the desert; some are called to live there while others are called to the active life (to live in our busy world). Since we cannot all go to the desert, our mother gives us the opportunity of having the desert experience once in a year to reshape our lives and bring us back on tract. She does this with the hope that we would experience the Lord and fall so deeply in love that we would like our elder brothers and sisters remain and not go back to the world.

• FASTING: To fast, is to deprive ourselves of something important and necessary, for the greater good. At this time we are encouraged to fast and make sacrifices for our sins and those of the whole world. “All Christians are called to mortify our natural inclinations. If we do so, we draw down upon ourselves supernatural inspirations” (St. Francis de Sales). When we fast, many good things happen within usof which we are not always aware. Some of the benefits of fasting are listed below:
• When we fast, we get more in touch with God, ourselves and others.
• Fasting transforms us from ordinary to extraordinary beings.
• Fasting creates emptiness within us which God comes to fill leaving us enriched, renewed and refreshed.
• During the period of fasting, a hunger and desire for food is aroused which turns our attention more towards Jesus the living bread which once eaten drives away hunger eternally. When this happens, he comes to satisfy us and we no longer feel hungry.
• Also, when we fast, a thirst is aroused in us and our attention is turned to Jesus the living water who quenches our thirst eternally without charge.
• Fasting tames the flesh, thereby helping us to cut our excesses and bring our flesh under our full control.
• Fasting helps to keep us on tract because at that time we make extra efforts to keep away from sin and distractions.
• Fasting leads us to a better understanding of God and his way of reaching out to us.
• Fasting makes us more aware and conscious of the presence of God.
• Fasting makes us to have a different view and orientation towards life and the daily events that characterize our lives.
• Through fasting God gives us the grace to see everything happening to us in the light of faith.
• Fasting arouses in us a deeper longing and yearning for God.

• ALMSGIVING:We are also encouraged to give alms to the needy. In Matthew 25:31-46, the Lords tells us clearly that the criteria for judgment will be based on our relationship with the needy:

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.” (Mt. 25:35-36)

If we are to strictly go by giving when we have enough, it would appear as if some people are exempted because they really do not have. But Jesus did not exempt anyone and neither did he say that it is only those who have that should give. Therefore, it means that there is no exception; all of us are expected to give at one point or the other. We must learn to see the call to give alms as a callto makea sacrifice otherwise we would never give. To see it as a sacrifice is to know that I need something and yet feel the urge to give it out because someone needs it more. To give to the needy, is to give God a loan for he can never allow those who give to lack the basic necessities of life(Proverbs 14:31, 19:17, Acts 11:29-30, 24:17, Galatians 2:10). And there is only one basic necessity of life; Jesus Christ. Once we have him, we have life in abundance and so we can go on living happily even in the absence of every other thing.

Stations of the Cross: During this season we are also encouraged to attend the Stations of the Cross where we reflect on Jesus’ journey from condemnation to crucifixion. At the Stations of the Cross Christ’s suffering and death come so alive that we get in touch with the reality of our sinfulness and the harm that sin does to us.It is a powerful way to contemplate, and enter into the mystery of Jesus’ gift of himself to us. It also takes away the passion of our Lord out of my head, making it an imaginative exercise involving my senses, my experience and my emotions leading to deep gratitude for what the Lord has done for me and inspiring in me, the desire to love as I have been loved. When we follow the Stations of the Cross we are opportune to follow Jesus on His way to Calvary just as our Lady and the other disciples did, over two thousand years ago with the same graces. We also meet the different personalities that came to play in the whole process and we discover the different times we acted like them and either ask for forgiveness or give thanks to God as the case may be. Following the Stations of the Cross makes us to struggle harder to give up sin and selfishness. The Stations of the Cross makes us to know how Jesus entered completely into our human experience – how He was condemned, was weak, was tired, He suffered and died.

Conclusion :

We thank God for giving us the privilege of witnessing yet another Lenten season; we are indeed a privileged people. If we sincerely follow what our mother (the Church)has laid down for us during this season, we would be reclaimed, reformed, restructured, refreshed, renewed, revitalized, re-energized and strengthened to go on. May He give us the grace to cooperate with him as we take every step in the right direction. Amen.