Spending Lent in Christ

Lent is a time to listen to the voice of the conscience and to the whispering of the Spirit in the depth of our heart. Lent is a time to be oriented to heaven.

GORAKHPUR, India (Catholic Online) - 'Then Jesus answered, "Go away, Satan! the Scripture says, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him!" (Mt 4: 10)

We have entered into the holy season of Lent both as a believing community and as followers of Christ Jesus. This holy season is observed earnestly by the Church in view of the redemptive events of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this way, the Lent we observe is Christ centered and is a time of deepening our faith in Him and to orient our life to the reality of eternity. This is why the Church cherishes and celebrates the season of Lent as a positive tradition in her life and mission. Lent helps us to put a corrective pause to our hectic pursuits of earthly ambitions and bodily satiations and sheds light on the reality of our life and soul. Lent is a time to listen to the voice of the conscience and to the whispering of the Spirit in the depth of our heart. Lent is a time to be oriented to heaven and to remind us that our life with Christ alone can help us to confront the reality of death in order to share in the fruit of His resurrection.

Jesus Christ is our example and model in this season of Lent. The Gospel of Mathew (4: 1-11) depicts vividly the fasting of Christ in the wilderness -forty days and forty nights. Bereft of food and drink, Jesus enters into the depth of divine and human mystery led by the Spirit of God. It meant for him an intense period of union and communion with His Father in the Spirit from which comes the clarity of his Mission and knowledge of the Will of God. Thus in Jesus fasting, prayer and penance become something positive and revitalizing. It is not mere giving up of food, drink and spending time doing nothing. Instead fasting and prayer in the season of Lent unites us deeply to Christ and enables us to follow him faithfully understanding our life and mission better and clearer in his life and mission.

The triumph of Christ over the devil in the desert temptations, at the end of His fasting and before the beginning of his public ministry, offers to us an important personal and catechetical lesson. Christ overcomes the temptation with the help of the Sprit of God and the Word of God. Fasting is a time for us, thus, to grow in the experience of the Spirit of God given to us in the baptism and the confirmation. It is a time for us to be deeply rooted in the Word of God. Because in the Sacred Scripture, we hear the voice of Christ. With Jesus we gain, especially in this season of fasting and prayer, a true mastery and awareness of us. This mastery and awareness is the knowledge and reality that 'Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.' Once God becomes central to our lives and priorities, we become his visible instruments and channels- of love, service and forgiveness.

The season of Lent has its inevitable social dimension as has been pointed out by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI in his Lenten message. It helps us to attune our hearts and hands to the needs of others. We live in a time which glorifies consumerism and avarice as distinct elements of social status and human dignity. In such a socio-political environment, where 'greed' is converted into the pretension of 'need', we as a faith community in this season are called to create a counter culture. This is why, Lenten season is also customarily associated with charity and almsgiving. It is also time to do a check up of our life styles and mentalities. Hence our collective commitment to the poor and the downtrodden should be equally supported and substantiated by personal examples of simplicity, holiness and truthfulness.

May this season of Lent help us to be empowered in the Spirit the signs of which are our personal and communitarian conversion from habits, values, attitudes and behaviors which make us slaves against the freedom and dignity of being the sons and daughters of God. Let us pray earnestly through the intercession of Mary our Mother, that, our sincere observation of Lent may enrich our lives with faith hope and charity expressed in humility, unity and reconciliation so that in Christ we shall 'worship the Lord our God and serve only Him'.

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Father Santhosh Sebastian Cheruvally holds a doctorate in Christology from Pontifical Gregorian University Rome and is a priest of the Diocese of Gorakhpur, in India.

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