By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
“Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”
These words were spoken over us when we received the ashes on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of our Lenten fast. These words, based on the first recorded words of Jesus in the Gospel according to St. Mark, succinctly expressed the purpose of these 40 days that precede the celebration of Easter and the Lord’s glorious resurrection from the dead.
Thus, the Lenten season is an invitation to a sincere review of our life in light of the teachings of the Gospel. It is also a call to “Exodus.” As the ancient Hebrews were called out of Egypt to pass over into the Promised Land, Lent is a call to come out of ourselves, to leave behind the illusion of self-sufficiency so that we can open ourselves — with trustful abandonment — to the merciful embrace of our loving and merciful Father.
At the same time, Lent is a summons to reach out to others in their need so that we, having experienced mercy from God, might learn how to be ourselves merciful.
Through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we lead ourselves and our loved ones to a renewed faith in the power of God’s love for us, a love that is stronger than sin, death and the devil.
Through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we grow in our relationship with God, seeking to overcome, through penance and the pardon we seek, the influence of habitual sin which has wounded our capacity to enter into communion with others.
Through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, freed from selfishness, we share our blessings with others in their need.
As I said above, Lent is an invitation to a sincere review of our life in the light of the teachings of the Gospel. And this review is made in view of the renewal of our baptismal promises that will take place on Easter Sunday. Therefore, it is also “the favorable time” for each Catholic to receive the sacrament of penance: a good confession should be a part of every Catholic’s Lenten observance. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: the sacrament of penance remains “the ordinary way of obtaining forgiveness and the remission of serious sins committed after baptism.”
We are called to recommit ourselves to that seeking for holiness which should be what our life in Christ means for us as Christians, as Catholics. If we seek holiness, as St. John Paul II reminded us, then “it would be a contradiction for us to settle for a life of mediocrity marked by a minimalist ethic and a superficial religiosity.”
Through the spiritual assistance of our prayer, our fasting and our almsgiving (and support of the ABCD — the Archbishop's Charities and Development Campaign — can be a modern day expression of such almsgiving), that is, through the totality of our Lenten devotions, we are to work on resolving “those contradictions” in our life that divert us from the pursuit of holiness.
Lent is a season of grace and salvation. May the sacrifices we make and the mortifications we endure during this holy season be signs of our willingness to embrace the true way of life presented to us in the Gospel.
“Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”
