Lent is the WAY

Happy Lent!
I know that sounds like a contradiction. After all, Lent is a time of prayer, fasting, charity and being sorry for our sins. It’s a time to receive the Sacrament of reconciliation, and sometimes going to Confession can be challenging. But, compared to the Pandemic year that we have just been through, this Lent is going to be a breeze - 40 days - what’s that? When we have just endured almost 365 days of Pandemic Lent? 40 days - No sweat!
If you would like to listen to Deacon Ben present this in a YouTube mission (40 mins) click here.

The Church asks us to give 40 days of Lent. The number 40 is mentioned 146 times in Bible.
Moses lived 40 years in Egypt, and he lived 40 years in Midian before God selected him to lead his people out of slavery. Then he led the Hebrews for another 40 years in the desert. Moses was also on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights, on two separate occasions receiving God's laws. The great flood lasted for 40 days. Jesus fasted 40 days and nights in the desert, just before his public ministry began. And he also appeared to his disciples and others for 40 days after his resurrection from the dead. According to the Bible, 40 it is the number of the waiting, the preparation or testing. A kind of probation. Essentially, 40 days symbolizes the death of the old self and spiritual rebirth, birth of a new self. Lent is a time of critical self-examination and self-evaluation. It’s a time of purification, a time of finding the right WAY.

Because of their hard-heartedness, it took the Hebrews 40 years to find the right way to the Promised Land. They needed to be purified. Think of it, forty years living in the wilderness! That is why they were able to conquer the Canaanites. They were battle ready, ready to face the obstacles before them. God hardened them in the desert

Jesus spent 40 days and nights fasting in the desert. Did Jesus need purification? Certainly not!
But he did need to get ready for what faced him. In a sense Jesus’ human nature needed to be hardened.
Remember Jesus was fully Divine and fully human. Like us in all things but sin. His time in the desert was to transcend his human nature and to fully connect with his Divine nature. To fully discern, to fully realize the WAY he should go, In order to become the WAY for us. That is what Lent is all about. It’s a time of self-evaluation. A time to find our WAY.

Did you ever work on a problem? Whether in school or financial or even mechanical? Did ever find yourself struggling and struggling to solve that problem, but just couldn’t figure it out? Then maybe you walk away from the problem, put it out of your mind for a period of time. And when you look back at it, there is the answer staring you right in your face. The answer was always there, you just couldn’t’ see it. Maybe because you had too much else on your mind. Or maybe because you were tired or just not ready to see the answer. By stepping away, by clearing your mind of distraction, or fatigue or whatever, you were able to come back, look at the problem with refreshed eyes, and solve the problem, find the answer, and find the WAY.

That is exactly what Lent is all about it’s about stepping away – to find our way. Stepping outside of our normal way of life. Stepping out of our normal Way of seeing things, and finding the right answer to our spiritual problems. The right WAY.

You know the ancient practices of the Church have great physical, psychological and Spiritual benefits, and Lent is one of the best examples of the wisdom of the Church. During Lent the Church asks us for three things. In the Gospel which we read on Ash Wednesday, Jesus shows us these three things: Prayer, fasting and Charity. Each one of these things brings physical, psychological and Spiritual benefits:

Prayer- can calm us physically
It can center us psychologically
And nourish us spiritually
Fasting and abstinence - can certainly help us physically, and when we feel good physically, it affects our mental state, and helps us see clearly spiritually.
As for Charity – it has been scientifically documented that when we do good for others we feel better physically, psychologically, as well as spiritually.
The Church has always known this. It has always known the benefits of these 40 days Because Jesus has shown us the WAY through these 40 days 2,000 years ago.

But, there is one more step we need to take in order to be fully ready for what we face in this crazy world.
We must become fully reconciled with God through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, by making a good Confession. That’s why the Church encourages us to receive the Sacrament during Lent.  Especially if we have a serious matter to Confess.

There are 5 basic precepts of the Church. The precepts of the Church are meant to be guidelines for us.
They are guidelines for the bare minimum that a person should do to be a faithful Catholic.
These precepts of the Church are guidelines for us to find our WAY. The precepts apply to us especially during Lent:

1. Attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
2. Confess your sins at least once a year.
3. Humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season.
4. Observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence.
5. Help to provide for the needs of the Church.

The precept of yearly Confession is really the most important because without being in the proper state of grace we cannot really perform the others faithfully. And certainly we cannot humbly receive our Creator in Holy Communion.

There are two main reasons why people do not go to Confession:

1. They believe that what they have done is so sinful that God will never forgive them
2. Or, they think that they have no sins to confess.

Both those positions are wrong. First, there is no sins that God will not forgive as long as we are truly sorry for them, and we sincerely wish not to commit them again. We might in the future fall again, but at the moment of that Confession, if we sincerely wish to never do so again, then any sin will be forgiven by God through the priest. Secondly, the person who believes that they have no sins to confess must realize that although they may have not committed a serious, mortal sin. As human flawed human beings we often, maybe daily, do what is not Christian.

Confession is truly good for the soul. And because it is good for the soul, Confession is also good for the mind and body. The phrase, “confession is good for the soul” is a proverb that advises people to come clean regarding anything that they regret in order to feel better about themselves.

I am a clinical social worker, and I have treated hundreds, maybe thousands of people, for over 35 years.
People have told me things about their lives that they have never told anyone else. Things that they couldn’t even admit to themselves. And after doing so, sometimes I have seen changes in them, as if a great weight was taken off their shoulders. So, if a person can feel so relieved by telling their burdens to a therapist. How much more can they be transformed by telling their burdens to Jesus through the priest?
Burdens both big and small?
 
I don’t know about you, but there is nothing like laying the burden of a problem, sin or disorder at the feet of Jesus in Confession. There is nothing like the relief that is found in that Sacrament. Confession is truly good for the soul - and also for the mind and body.

So, make this Lent a joyous one. It’s a journey which can indeed be joyous one. Joyous because it leads us to the WAY. Joyous because it leads to the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, and to our salvation. Lent leads us joyously back to the WAY.