By Leon Bent –
We might think that the hope of Lent is the assurance that we will get through it, that we will come to the end of it. We see Lent as an obstacle course we need to navigate, to get to the great feast of Easter. But while the Lenten season is, indeed, preparation for our Easter celebration, the hope of this season is that, we will find our lives transformed by the many ways we encounter God’s Word, by the richness of the Scripture Readings chosen to encourage, to challenge, to confront, to comfort. Focusing only on the end goal would cause us to miss so much along the way.
The greatest hope of Lent is the discovery that it’s not only about penance, deprivation, spiritual struggles, and rooting out sin in our lives. Those are often the things we do during Lent. However, the hope of Lent lies in what God does. From the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has made mercy his hallmark.
Pope Francis wants us to realize that God’s mercy and grace surround us, not just in special times and places. but always and everywhere. Lent is a time to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary, to be surprised by God’s mercy when we least expect it. As the season begins, think about the hopes you have for Lent this year. Think about what changes you want to see in your life, in the world. Let the words of Pope Francis guide you on a journey of bringing those hopes to fulfilment.
A Word from Pope Francis
With its invitations to conversion, Lent comes providentially to awaken us, to rouse us from torpor, from the risk of moving forward by inertia. The exhortation which the Lord addresses to us through the prophet Joel is strong and clear: “Return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). Why must we return to God? Because something is not right in us, not right in society, in the Church and we need to change, to give it a new direction. And this is called needing to convert! Once again Lent comes to make its prophetic appeal, to remind us that it is possible to create something new within ourselves and around us, simply because God is faithful, always faithful, for he cannot deny himself, he continues to be rich in goodness and mercy, and he is always ready to forgive and start afresh.
Taking the Word to Heart
People often remark on the way our Church services are well attended on Ash Wednesday. It’s not a holy day of obligation. No one is required to attend Mass or receive blessed ashes. But, there’s something about the beginning of this season of Lent that draws us in, calls us to return to sanity, to a bit of austerity, to a change of heart and mind. It’s a second chance at our new year’s resolutions, long since broken and forgotten. It’s a second chance at making changes in our lives. For some people, it’s no less than a second chance at life. That something that draws us is God’s grace. And it’s drawing us back to God’s merciful embrace.
There’s something attractive about Lent beginning in the middle of an ordinary week, catching us in the midst of our daily occupations, and asking us to take time out to find God there. Lent doesn’t take us away from our ordinary lives, but rather it invites us to bring a new and holy attention to those activities. This should be the way with all of our spiritual practices. We take time apart in order to return to our daily activities with new inspiration. God will always surprise us with possibilities when we least expect them. Let this Lent be one of those surprises.
Bringing the Word to Life
The prophet Joel calls for a public ritual of repentance. Jesus reminds his followers that our deepest need is between ourselves and the Father. Both are necessary. Which do you need this Lent?
How might your Lenten observances contain a healthy balance of public and private prayer? Choose something this Lent that will enhance your day-to-day interactions with the people in your life.
God is Rich in Tenderness and Welcomes a Sinner
In the face of so many wounds that hurt us and could harden our hearts, we are called to dive into the sea of prayer, which is the sea of God’s boundless love, to taste his tenderness.
I am always struck when I reread the parable of the merciful father; it impresses me because it always gives me great hope. Think of that younger son who was in the father’s house, who was loved; and yet he wants his part of the inheritance. He goes off, spends everything, hits rock bottom, where he could not be more distant from the father. Yet when he is at his lowest, he misses the warmth of the father’s house and he goes back.
The Father sees the son from afar; he was waiting for him every hour of every day. The son was always in his father’s heart, even though he had left him, even though he had squandered his whole inheritance, his freedom. The father, with patience, love, hope, and mercy had never for a second stopped thinking about him, and as soon as he sees him still far off, he runs out to meet him and embraces him with tenderness, the tenderness of God, without a word of reproach: his son has returned! And that is the joy of the father.
Maybe someone among us here is thinking my sin is so great, I am as far from God as the younger son in the parable; my unbelief is like that of Thomas. I don’t have the courage to go back, to believe that God can welcome me and that he is waiting for me, of all people. But God is indeed waiting for you; he asks of you only the courage to go to him.
How many times in my pastoral ministry have I heard it said, “Father, I have many sins”? And I have always pleaded, “Don’t be afraid, go to him, he is waiting for you, he will take care of everything.” We hear many offers from the world around us; but let us take up God’s offer instead: his is a caress of love. For God, we are not numbers, we are important; indeed we are the most important thing to him. Even if we are sinners, we are what is closest to his heart.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.