It’s that time of year again… Lent. As a young child, I remember I would not be excited at all for Lent. In fact, I didn’t really like it at all. It was solemn and it meant giving up candy and chocolate, for what seemed like an eternity!
As I got older, I started looking forward to Lent. For me, it meant a time to re-focus on my prayer life, and a time to reflect on where I’m at in my faith journey. I say re-focus, because I hope I’m not using Lent as the only time of the year when I pray, do penance, and other spiritual activities, but instead, as a time to grow closer to our Lord.
I think of it kind of like visiting the eye doctor. You may go once a year or so. While you’re there, you notice that your prescription that you received at last year’s visit isn’t actually as clear as it was before. You didn’t notice because of the slow, gradual decrease in your vision. You couldn’t tell that things weren’t as clear and things got a little fuzzy. The doctor gives you your new lens prescription and things seem re-focused.
I think this can happen in our faith lives as well. We go through the year and get distracted with our job, our responsibilities at home, spending time with our family and friends, and going to this and that activity. At times, it seems that the first time we stop to take a breath is when we lay down at night for bed.
During Lent, we make a journey towards the cross. It’s a time of repentance. We prepare ourselves spiritually for the anticipated Easter Sunday when we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection. How do we prepare ourselves for such a celebration? With prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
“The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many and various ways. Scripture and the Fathers insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1434.
Jesus teaches about each of these in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6.
Most of the time, you hear many people giving up something for Lent, such as a food, dessert, beverage, or even some sort of technology, like Facebook, music, etc.
Why do we give these things up during Lent? It is a part of fasting from something we enjoy. Not because it’s “bad”, but so we don’t put anything in the place of God in our life. It’s a sacrifice that helps us deny ourselves in some way.
Lent is 40 days long, give or take a few days, based on when Holy Week falls. It is more of a symbolic 40 days.
In the Old Testament, there are many instances of when 40 was used as a preparation time, whether it was the 40 days that Moses stayed up on the mountain, the 40 days of the great flood with Noah, the 40 days that Nineveh was given to repent, the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the desert, along with many other scenarios.
We also see in the New Testament that Jesus went into the desert for 40 days to fast and pray before he began his public ministry. “By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” – CCC 540
May these next 40 days of Lent be a prayerful and reflective time for us to repent of our sins and grow closer to Jesus.