Lent-an invitation to open our hearts to God's grace!

Lent-an invitation to open our hearts to God's grace!

Lent is forty days of prayer, fasting, and alms giving that begins on Ash Wednesday. The season of Lent is a season of preparation to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection at Easter. It is a time of renewal of faith and faithfully following his footsteps.

Ash Wednesday is the Church’s ‘Day of Atonement’. It is not only the first of the forty days of Lent, but along with Good Friday, the Church describes it as a day of complete fasting and abstinence from meat for Catholics from the age of 18 to 59, meaning only one full meal and two smaller meals not equal to a full meal are permitted. Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence from meat. These are not just a rule for the season of Lent but a means to grow in our relationship with God and others, so as Pope Francis said in his last year’s message, “We can celebrate with great joy the paschal victory of Christ the Lord over sin and death.”

The readings for Ash Wednesday remind us of the spiritual nature of the Lenten season. The first reading is from the book of the Prophet Joel. The message of the book of Joel can be summed up as a call to repentance in the face of coming judgment, which the prophet refers to as “the day of the Lord.” He insists in the reading that we should experience a complete conversion of heart and not simply sorrow for our sins. In the book of Leviticus 16:30, we read, “For on this day atonement is made for you to make you clean; of all your sins you will be cleansed before the LORD.”

In the second reading, Saint Paul says that Christ took on our humanity and became the victim in a sacrificial act so “we might become the righteousness of God.” The sacrifice of Christ has infinite value and enables us to be reconciled to God.

Today’s Gospel instructs us to embrace the true spirit of prayer, fasting, and alms giving. This passage is part of the Sermon on the Mount, which begins in chapter 5 and ends in chapter 7. In this Gospel reading, the sermon continues with a warning against doing good to be seen and gives three examples: almsgiving (Mt 6:2–4), prayer (Mt 6:5–15), and fasting (Mt 6:16–18).

Forty days of prayer, fasting, and alms giving are a way to remove the obstacles to loving God and others. They are also a time to experience the spirit of poverty and come closer to those in need. Lent is a time to die so we can rise with Christ at Easter with a renewed spirit of life.

We all received the book “33 Days to Eucharist Glory” as a Christmas gift in 2024. Please find the book; if you cannot, we have a couple available at the entrance. The evangelization team invites you to join for an initial meeting on Sunday, February 22nd, at 4 pm. We start the assigned reading on the 23rd and complete it on March 27. On Palm Sunday, March 28/29, Masses, we will Consecrate to Eucharist.

What can I do this Lent? A simple suggestion: 1. Daily find time to prayerfully read the 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory. 2. Find time to attend Mass every Sunday. And if you go every Sunday, try to find time for weekday Mass at least once or twice. Or join for the Stations of the Cross. 3. Pray for one or two of your friends/families each week and invite them to the weekend Mass.

Once again, I will be posting a Lenten message on the YouTube and Facebook pages. This year, the message will be centered on the Eucharist. 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory, Stations of the Cross, Confession, retreat, etc., are wonderful opportunities to invite friends who do not regularly go to Mass or even non-Catholic friends. Evangelization starts with prayer, which leads to a personal invitation.

Perfection in Love: On the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, we read the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew (5:17-37). Today’s Gospel starts with a statement, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill…whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” In Old Testament times, whenever the Jews spoke of scripture, they referred to The Law and The Prophets. Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic Law and the Prophets. The new Moses, Jesus, is taking us to a higher standard. The scribes and pharisees kept the letter of the law, but not its spirit; both are necessary for salvation (CCC 5024).

We remember Matthew 22:36, one of the scholars of the Law asked Jesus, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus quoted two Old Testament passages and gave the greatest Commandment: Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength,” and Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The first one summarizes the first three Commandments, and the second one summarizes the rest of the seven Commandments. The true spirit of the Law is “love.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus focuses not so much on action as on the interior space from which actions flow. Here we find the very essence of who we are. Jesus came to fulfill the law by revealing its true spirit: love.