Throughout Lent let us favor the Lord with our sins of pride that befuddle us.

Throughout Lent let us favor the Lord with our sins of pride that befuddle us.

Through pride the scene of justice to ourselves remains hidden and the virtue of humility becomes a boring thought that can only wear us down without the grace of forgiveness.  

To some the days of sustenance through fasting and giving alms can mean very little after the first few days following the ashes on our foreheads.  Going through the signs of normal adherence to traditional examples of the Church can appear to weigh us down when life’s opportunities become a necessity.  

Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him.  This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us:  “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.”  By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.  (CCC 540).

Perhaps as the days of Lent may appear to be the same old as before, let us take another look at just what we allow ourselves to leave of endurance to what this means to you and me.

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.  Alongside the radical purification brought about be Baptism or martyrdom they cite as means of obtaining forgiveness of sins: effort at reconciliation with one’s neighbors, tears of repentance, concern for the salvation of one’s neighbor, the intercession of the saints, and the practice of charity “which covers a multitude of sins.”  (CCC 1434).

Precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life.  The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort , in the growth in love of God and neighbor.  (CCC 2041).

The fifth precept:  “You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence.”  Ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts; they help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.  (CCC 2043).  

What more do we need as the boredom of Lenten events appear to take away real adherence to the Passion of Christ and the minimal few hours we have over 40 days to give just a little of our time.

Ralph B. Hathaway