Walking With Jesus Through Lent
We have entered the Liturgical Season of Lent. When we share with other Catholic Christians our plans for Lent, we can learn many ways of living this season with our loving Jesus Christ. Some people think of this as a time to give up something that they personally truly enjoy. Others mention that they wish to make of this time a purposeful renewal of their faith and spiritual life, and grow closer and more like Jesus. Then too there are those who plan to do good works for others as a way of expessing their faith and love. All of these things are included in helping us to come to a new conversion in our own faith. This also takes some time for prayer, reflection and feeling sorry for our thoughts, words and actions that have been very sinful, or have been things that we know Jesus would never even think of doing. Remember in the Gospel where He says “Amen I say to you if you have even thought of stealing, murdering, etc.,” it is as though you had actually carried it out. Now we are talking of penance, and making a good and sincere confession to a priest to reconcile ourselves with God and the people we have offended.
The Church leads us formally through the season of Lent every year as we continue this walk with Jesus. We may go through various times and experiences in our lives that happen any time of the year. These situations also lead us to little epiphanies, which bring special revelations to light and teach us through new conversions a very special growth in our personal understanding of God and ourselves. But the formal time of penance is something that we all live through together, and makes all one with Christ and the Church. It broadens our thinking and makes us pay attention to what Jesus actually did for us.
God called us into creation for a purpose. He loved us into existence and, seeing us in this sinful world, came in human form to show us the Way back to Heaven and our Father in Heaven for all time. Such a Love! But we know from Scripture that some people couldn’t or wouldn’t believe Him and set out to kill Him because what He said and did, although wonderful, were not the ways they had always been taught by those in their spiritual leadership. He was frightening to them because He showed powers that only God should have. We know the result is that they planned ways to do away with Him, and make sure that the people would see this and not follow His ways anymore. They would lose their positions of power and influence if this Man lived. So they killed Him. But He could even overpower the sin of death, and He lives! – even today, and always – until the end of time. This is Divine Mercy.
We began this conversation talking about the season of Lent in the life cycle of the Church in Jesus Christ. Now let us think about what we are doing this year for Lent and if there is something else I would like to do before these 40 Days are over.
