The Church’s Lenten journey: through death to life, from sacrifice to joy

The Lenten journey begins on March 5 this year and will last for 40 days until we arrive at the celebrations of Holy Week and Easter. It begins always on Ash Wednesday with the reminder that we are dust and will return to dust. Created from the dust of the earth before he sinned, Adam returned to that dust at his death, for death is the consequence of sin, of separation from the ever-living God. Jesus, the New Adam, passes freely through death so that, having conquered sin and death, he can restore us to eternal life.

We who are in Christ through baptism make the journey through death to life with him. Jesus is the path we follow to reunite ourselves to God. The Church’s Lenten journey therefore follows Jesus’ way of self-sacrifice so that sin is overcome and eternal life assured.

What do we sacrifice on the Lenten journey? We sacrifice some of our time by additional prayer. We sacrifice some of our plans and our goods by almsgiving. We sacrifice some of our comfort and ease by fasting. St. Augustine relates the three: “Do you wish your prayer to fly to God? Give it two wings, fasting and almsgiving.”

The best way of making the Lenten journey is to participate daily in the Eucharist. The prayers and scripture for the Lenten Masses bring us into the mystery of sin and grace, of death and life. Most Catholics also lay open their lives to God in the course of the Lenten journey by receiving the sacrament of penance or reconciliation. In it, we find forgiveness of our sins and healing of our lives.

Jesus warned that there are some demons that can be cast out only by prayer and fasting. The young Catholic Australian evangelist, Matthew Kelly, speaks from his own experience when he writes, “If you are suffering under the slavery of ingrained habits, turn to God through prayer and fasting. If you are being tormented by the demons of habitual sin, turn to God through prayer and fasting.” In the United States, Catholics are obliged to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays of Lent. We are also obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Our interior penance brings forth life-giving fruit through generosity to those in need. In his Lenten Message this year, Pope John Paul II calls us to give ourselves freely to others. This is a form of penance that strikes at our selfishness. The Holy Father calls us to a generosity which moves beyond that of isolated acts of charity to the kind of practical action that will promote justice, defend the powerless, provide food for the hungry and care for the sick. Mercy and love for our neighbor, says the Pope, are the fruit of a living relationship with God, as we give alms not only from our surplus but also from our substance.

We make this journey with other disciples of Jesus Christ, those who have found their self-identity in surrendering all they are and have to Christ. A disciple is someone who cannot stand alone, someone who finds his true self only in giving himself to his master. Lent puts into perspective all the schemes we devise to imagine we can go it alone: vast security networks and defense schemes, insurance policies and legal claims. All of these are exercises of human prudence and necessary in many circumstances of life. Yet their proliferation can indicate such a fear of risk on our part that self-surrender becomes impossible. People of faith risk everything on the Lord and his self-sacrificing love for us.

On the Lenten journey, we bring only what we sacrifice, what we give away. This Lent, the Archdiocese completes the “Sharing Christ’s Gifts” Millennium Campaign. Born in the celebration of the Great Jubilee of the Year of Our Lord 2000, the Millennium Campaign taught stewardship, approaching time, talents and money as gifts to be shared. The goal was $200 million, of which over 80 percent was to be returned to the parishes which raised the money to be shared. In fact, over $220 million has been pledged, with some parishes yet to complete the campaign. All this money is being devoted to capital and other improvements, many already being made in the parishes. The 20 percent of the money distributed from the Pastoral Center is going to the retirement home for priests in Lemont and for some capital improvements at the Archdiocesan Seminary in Mundelein, along with grants to poor parishes and the covering of the expenses of the campaign itself. Integral to this campaign has been the forgiveness of $27 million of debt owed to the Pastoral Center by parishes. (See story, Page 6.)

Just as we need to give away money, to share Christ’s material gifts, so must we also share Christ’s spiritual gifts. The Archdiocesan evangelization program is now being used in six pilot parishes, with another 50 gearing up for it. The stewardship campaign showed that there is money in the parishes which, when it is seen as a gift from Christ, is there to be shared. The evangelization program will show that there is much holiness in the parishes, and it too is there to be shared. A spiritual gift not given away will eventually be lost. We need to share our faith, not only in Lent but on every day as we journey to God.

The Church’s Lenten journey follows Jesus’ path in company with his disciples. It is a journey of self-sacrifice and, therefore, a journey which ends in joy. God bless you.