Here we are. Mardi Gras. Shrove Tuesday. The eve of Lent, so to speak.
The question may arise: “What shall I do for Lent?” Typically, it becomes a question of what enjoyable thing we will give up, or what worthy thing we will add to our lives during Lent. Giving something up, or adding something on, can be a very good thing to do. It reminds us that there is something different about this season, something which calls forth a change from within us.
But what change? What is the goal of Lent? What is its purpose? What can help us live this season fruitfully?
There are many helpful resources out there that can assist us in living Lent well. Most parishes will offer one or more of these resources, or recommend others. Many of us have our own Lenten traditions in place. But what is Lent all about? Getting a clearer sense of this can assist us in choosing traditions and practices that will help us live in harmony with the season, and open ourselves to what the Holy Spirit wishes to do in us and through us during this time.
Historians tell us that Lent was originally the season when people who were in the process of becoming Christian entered their last stage of preparation before their baptism at Easter. The sincerity of these converts and the intensity of their faith and desire for the Lord became an example to those who were already Christian. They wanted to renew their own commitment to the Lord and his Church, and to enhance their own spiritual preparation for Holy Week and Easter. They realized that, even though they were already baptized, their conversion to the Lord was not yet complete. As Paul would say, they had not yet finished their race.
Thus was Lent born: out of a desire by those who were already Christian to renew their own process of conversion, to examine their lives in the light of the Gospel and the teachings of the Church that flowed from it, to see where they may have strayed from the Lord, and to seek reconciliation with the Lord and with one another.
We often speak of Lent as a return to the desert. It was in the desert of Sinai that the Lord initially formed his people, under the guidance of Moses. Even as the prophets pointed out ways in which the people had lost their earlier commitment and were straying from God’s word, they were also promising that the Lord would lead them back into the desert – not literally but spiritually – and offer them reconciliation, forgiveness, a new start. In Jesus’ own time in the desert, he is tempted but remains faithful to his Father. In this way, he becomes the renewed, faithful Israel, and calls on others to follow him, to repent of their sins, and join this renewed Israel.
So it is for us. We hear the call of our own desert once again. We examine our lives in the light of the Gospel, so that we might recognize our moments of faithfulness and our moments of sin, ask God to strengthen what is good and to heal what is broken, that we might be renewed – not only for our own sake, but for the sake of everyone we meet. If we are to be the light of the world, we want that light to shine as brightly as possible. We don’t want our sins to obscure that light in any way.
Recently I came across a homily by Cardinal Ratzinger – given before he became Pope Benedict XVI – which speaks of these things from a different perspective. He isn’t talking about Lent specifically, but it seemed to me that his words could be applied to Lent and give us an insight into that season. I’ll give a long quote, as I believe it is worth reading:
Creation is ordered to the Sabbath, which is the sign of the covenant between God and the human race. Creation is so structured that it terminates in a time for worship. Creation was made so that there would be a place for worship. It fulfills its purpose, it is in order, when it is constantly reoriented toward worship. Creation exists for the sake of worship: Operi Dei nihil praeponatur, Saint Benedict says in his Rule: “Nothing is to take precedence over the service of God.” This is not an expression of exalted piety, but a pure and practical application to our own lives of the story of creation and its message. The genuine center, the force that moves and orders from within the rhythm of the stars and of our lives, is worship. Ultimately all peoples have come to know this; the creation stories of every culture affirm that the world exists for cult, for the glorification of God. This unity among the various cultures with regard to the deepest questions of the human race is something very precious. In conversation with African and Asian bishops, especially during the synod of bishops, I have come again and again to the conclusion that the great traditions of all peoples are closely synonymous with those of the Bible. Preserved in them is a primitive knowledge of mankind that does not preclude belief in Christ. The danger for us today in our technical civilizations is that we have cut ourselves off from this primitive knowledge; that our misunderstanding of scientific technology and the arrogance of its practitioners prevent us from hearing the message of creation. The primitive knowledge that we hold in common is a signpost that links the great cultures. In the account of creation, the Sabbath is described as the day on which, in the freedom of worship, mankind shares God’s freedom, God’s rest, and so God’s peace. To keep the Sabbath means to keep the covenant. It means going back to the beginning, removing all the impurities our work has introduced into the world. It also means leading the way to a new world—to a world in which there will no longer be slaves and masters, but only the free children of God; to a world in which men and animals and earth will share like brothers and sisters in the peace of God and in his freedom. By their No to the rhythm of freedom and leisure ordained for them by God, human beings have distanced themselves from their likeness to God and have trampled on the world. Therefore they had to be snatched away from their obstinate attachment to their own work; therefore God had to bring them back to their proper place by releasing them from the dominion of technology. Operi Dei nihil praeponatur—worship first, then freedom and the rest ordained by God. Thus and only thus can we men live.
Picture the Sabbath, as Cardinal Ratzinger describes it, as Easter. The ultimate Sabbath. The goal of our lives. Indeed, the book of Revelation points to this worship of God and the entry into God’s rest as the ultimate goal of humanity. When Cardinal Ratzinger speaks of “going back to the beginning, removing all the impurities our work has introduced into the world”, he is speaking of the goal of Lent. We have to be freed from the “obstinate attachment to (our) own work” – from having things merely our way, so to speak – so that we could literally reorient our lives. “Worship first, then freedom and the rest ordained by God.”
How are we truly keeping the Sabbath, as Cardinal Ratzinger describes it? What impurities remain in our work? What keeps us from sharing in the freedom of the children of God? Does worship come first in our lives? If not, then what does?
Good questions to ponder – not only for Lent, but every day!