Men and the Disciplines of Lent

As the Catholic Church enters once more into the season of Lent, she issues a powerful challenge to the faithful, a challenge that we, as men, need to meet with courage and conviction. Rather than looking at Lent as a time of intermittent abstinence or sentimental rituals, men need to walk the path of personal self-denial and quiet contemplation as we take on the three great disciplines of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. This 40-day journey through the wilderness of Lent is a period of solitude and grace, a journey that mirrors the struggle our Savior endured as he made his way along the rugged road up to Calvary’s hill.

God’s word calls us to join with our Savior in the sacred surrender that led to our salvation. The only way men can understand the joy of Easter is to travel the road of sorrow along the way from Ash Wednesday to the Holy Week and the blessed days beyond. As we open the word and step onto the stage of salvation’s story, there is a new dawn awaiting us. It is the dawn of our renewal in Christ, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame so that we could be saved from sin.
 
To Dust We Shall Return

It is becoming rarer to see Catholic men wearing the solemn symbol of the cross on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday.  This dirty smudge should mark our commitment to the pilgrimage of Lent. It is a holy reminder that we are made of dust, a call to embrace our own self-surrender in order that we may discover our true purpose in Christ. Adam’s sin has marred our souls; and yet, the One who left heaven’s throne to take on flesh has walked the road of redemption for the ones he loves in order to bring life from death.

The readings for the holy day should lead men to ready themselves for the struggle through the wilderness that is Lent. We are called by the words of the prophet Joel ( Joel 2:12-18) to assemble and sanctify a holy fast, to repent and return to the Lord with fasting and weeping. Our commitment to this season should be so transparent and so self-giving that it becomes our 40-day act of worship.

Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 that today – not tomorrow or next month or next year – is the acceptable time of salvation. As men, we are ambassadors for Christ, carrying a message of repentance and renewal to the lost. As we walk the path of perfection through the disciplines of Lent, we are acting as living sacrifices, men who share hope to a dying world.
 
Taking on the Character of Christ

Like the Old Testament saints who stood in the gap for the people of God, Catholic men need to take hold of the struggle the Church faces and offer up prayers of self-denial for her future, calling out to the Father to strengthen her and keep her until the day of Christ’s return.

Just as believers like Daniel, Nehemiah, and Esther took on the character of Christ to come as they surrendered themselves, fasted, and prayed for deliverance for the people of God, Catholic men are called to accept the transgressions of the Body as we endure the disciplines of Lent and look toward the Days of Easter with expectancy and joy. We must be willing to sit with the sins of God’s people, acknowledging the Church’s need for restoration and calling out for Christ to shower her with grace.

Daniel ( Daniel 9:3-19) turned his face to the Lord, seeking him “by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes,” praising God and calling for his face to shine once more upon the sanctuary. Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 1:1-11) spent many days in fasting and prayer, remembering God’s deeds of old and his promises to his people, as he moved forward in confidence knowing God would restore the fortunes of his people. Esther (Esther 14:1-19), who covered her head with ashes and dung, despised her royal position and pleaded for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to extend his righteousness to those who were under the sentence of death and deliver them from their enemies.

Our call as men is to sit in the ashes of our own mortality, to remove our daily clothing of self-importance, and come spiritually naked before our Father in heaven. Lent is our time to seek the Lord God with prayer, fasting, and selfless giving. We cannot build God’s heavenly city on this earth until we are willing to suffer through the days of Lent, immersing ourselves in the Church’s disciplines and pleading for mercy as we call out for God to transform us and our brothers and sisters through the cross.
 
Shaped in the Quiet, Secret Place

In the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday ( Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18), Jesus challenges us to pray, fast, and give alms in secret. He calls us to enter into a secret inner chamber, a place where God alone can see the depth of our hearts and work his will in our lives through these daily disciplines. God, who formed us in our mother’s wombs allows his grace to form within us a new man through the journey of Lent.

Each individual passage in the reading ends with the same phrase: “…and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Are we as men willing to allow our Creator to shape our souls in the quiet loneliness of Lent? Are we willing to walk that desolate road where all our secret sins are exposed and all our need is expressed to the One who can answer all our needs?
 
The Fall and Our Daily Struggles

In the wilderness Christ undid the three sins of Adam and Eve, the sins that led to the Fall:

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. ( Genesis 3:6)

1 John shows us even more clearly the effect Adam’s sin has on our souls:

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. ( 1 John 2:16)

Our Lord, who fasted, prayed, and surrendered himself to the Father’s will, overcame each temptation of the Fall, answering Satan from the holy word, proclaiming that God alone is our true source of life and the only worthy object of our worship. As men take on the disciplines of Lent, we too are challenged to submit to God and empty ourselves that we may be filled with the love of Christ. Our fasting, prayer, and almsgiving allow us to surrender the things of this world and silence the voices in our souls crying out in selfishness so that we may experience more fully the power of the resurrection in our lives.
 
Trial Leads to Transformation

Throughout Lent, the Liturgy of the Word challenges us to walk the path to perfection right to the days of Holy Week, where we experience the story of the crucifixion once more. We need to approach this season of sorrow with conviction and openness so that the trials we face may lead to the transformation God desires. We must be willing to take on the true fast: to defeat wickedness, to bring freedom to those who are oppressed, to share what we have with the poor, and to bring hope to those in despair ( Isaiah 58:6-9a).

There is a beautiful song by BeBo Norman called “The Hammer Holds” ( Ten Thousand Days, 1999) that speaks to the attitude men need to have when considering the cross during this season of Lent:
 
A shapeless piece of steel
That's all I claim to be
This hammer pounds to give me form
This flame, it melts my dreams
I glow with fire and fury
As I'm twisted like a vine
My final shape, my final form
I'm sure I'm bound to find…
 
And after singing of dreams destroyed and dreams discovered in Christ, the focus of the lyrics changes:
 
The hammer pounds again
But flames I do not feel
This force that drives me, helplessly
Through flesh and wood reveal
A burn that burns much deeper
It's more than I can stand
The reason for my life was to take
The life of a guiltless man
 
Men need to understand that it is our sins that pierced the hands and feet and side of the Savior and held him to that cross. Only when we can acknowledge and accept our place in man’s sinful history, can we embody the healing that has come to us through the cross and resurrection of the Lord.
 
Garments of Worship

There is a beautiful phrase in the additional material of the book of Esther found in Catholic translations of the Bible:

On the third day, when she [Esther] ended her prayer, she took off the garments in which she had worshiped, and clothed herself in splendid attire (Esther 15:1 – emphasis mine).

This is a perfect picture of the season of Lent. As men take up the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we are daring to put on the sorrowful garments of worship, to empty ourselves so that we may be filled with the certainty of joy that is ours in Christ. We are called to embrace his once-for-all eternal sacrifice and to rejoice in the newness of life on Easter, when we can once more put on the splendid garments of the resurrection.

Lent is our time for men to clothe ourselves with self-denial and stand in the shadow of the cross for the sake of our Savior. May we surrender our lives to Jesus and join with the Church in walking the path of sorrow from the cross to the empty tomb, and then onward to the Easter days of joy! May we live transformed lives in total surrender to the One who surrendered his life for us.