Comfort My People — Lenten Journey

We have entered the stretch of the season of Lent, when the season can seem to weigh upon us. It can be a challenge to remain steadfast in our resolve during Lent to return to the Lord with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — or faithful to whatever penance we have embraced during this holy season. 

The temptation can be to simply give up and stop our Lenten observances. Another temptation can be to simply set our minds to endure and to grind out the rest of the season of Lent and await its end, rather than to continue in our desire to be transformed by our actions during this holy season. 

It can be that at this point in Lent that we realize that the sins that we are seeking to rise above have more firmly rooted themselves in our lives and actions than we originally thought. Sin can do that, and it is not until we take time in reflection and prayer that we realize the depth of its presence in our lives. In so many ways, the temptation can be to simply give up and not continue to rely on the grace of the season to renew us into the person God calls us to be in our baptism.

As we strive to remain faithful to the Gospel and turn away from sin, we can certainly take comfort in the fact that God has promised to remember our sin no more. God certainly makes the same offer of forgiveness of sin to you and to me. However, God’s offer to forgive sin must be coupled with our desire to receive God’s forgiveness and by our firm resolve to avoid sin in the future. 

It is the second part, about avoiding sin in the future, that challenges and weighs heavily upon us. Avoiding sin is very difficult for us, and time and time again, we fall victim to sinfulness and give in to temptation.

God, who knows well the human heart, knew the struggle and problem that we would always have in trying to live faithfully our covenant relationship with him. Infidelity to God’s covenant was not something that only marked God’s people in the distant past. Infidelity to God’s covenant is also seen in our own personal words and actions, and therefore also marks each one of us. God, who is a God of mercy and justice, therefore sent his Son to bring light and life to the world. It is through the efforts and faithfulness of Jesus Christ that we have been saved.

Jesus serves as an example as we strive to remain faithful to renewing our relationship with God, especially as this season of Lent can seem to lumber along. As we will soon enter Holy Week and the Triduum, the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus will be our focus — Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father and all that was asked of our Savior. 

In preparation for the special focus that we have on the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Lord during this time in the liturgical year, we are reminded of all that Jesus did to save us.  Because of what Jesus Christ suffered, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. In obedience to Jesus Christ, we pledge to do our best to renew our covenant with God forged in baptism, which brings us back to remaining faithful to the Gospel. 

The great penitential Psalm 51 asks God to create in us a clean heart. In biblical times, the heart was thought to be the very center of the person, so in essence, the prayer is for God to “create a clean center of life in me,” a center of life that establishes itself on God and his covenant relationship with us. 

May our perseverance in these days of Lent strengthen our resolve to rise above sin, and may the waters of our baptism again refresh us in spirit. We continue being faithful to the season of Lent or renewing our resolve at this time. We journey to the renewal of our baptismal promises during Easter, which quenches our thirst for the living God. 

Our Lenten journey continues but is also fast ending. In these final days of Lent let us not lose our resolve to return to the Lord and seek his forgiveness and strength.