We begin this week our annual celebration of the season of Lent. For 40 days, beginning on Ash Wednesday, we offer our prayers and our acts of repentance preparing for Holy Week.

Those 40 days bring to mind the wandering for 40 years of the people of Israel in the desert. They were guided by God in a test and a preparation for entrance into the Promised Land, as the people called it, and formed by God Himself.

Those 40 days also remind us of the 40 days that Jesus fasted and prayed in the desert in preparation for His public ministry. (Mt. 4:2). Jesus knew that joys, sacrifices and sorrows would be a part of His coming ministry. His time in the desert allowed Him to dedicate Himself and His humanity to the will of His Father for all that was to come.

For us, Lent is a time to reflect upon our personal participation in the plan of salvation offered to us by God. In our sinfulness, we are joined to the example of the wandering people of Israel. Lent calls us to leave behind our sins and what, in our lives and consciences, is not of God. The people of Israel left behind Egypt, its slavery and its distorted familiarity with which the people of Israel had become strangely comfortable. Like them we are called to another place that God has prepared. But we must enter it worthily and willingly.

That is why Lent also joins us to Christ in His time of prayer and fasting. With Jesus who was baptized by John for us, with Jesus who died bodily on the cross for us, with Jesus who rose in the body for us, we are to follow Him, our leader in body and spirit as we go through the test of life.

All through history, sinful humanity has needed the reminder of Lent to fast, pray and put aside what we think, do and say that is sinful. In our own time, how vital is that reminder?

Our secular society essentially teaches us that we personally and individually determine good and evil, right and wrong. Sin, if there is such a thing, is not an offense against God and His love. At most, it is thought to be a violation of society’s arbitrary standards.

Lent reminds us that reality is much different, and much better. We come from God, gifted with our bodies and our souls as part of creation. We have been given the gift of earthly life with the hope of eternal life with Jesus written into our being. This season of Lent calls for us to take stock of our lives, and most especially of our love for God.

We should use this season of Lent to deeply examine the state of our soul. What are the truly good things that I am doing? How can I do more, because that brings me closer to Jesus? But most especially, what are the elements of sin that darken my soul? Am I failing to pray daily? Am I missing Mass on Sunday? Am I in a bad friendship or relationship? Does my life conflict with the teaching of the Church Jesus established to help me get to heaven?

As always, please do not let Lent go by without making a good confession. And if it has been many years since you went, I most specifically invite you to come this Lent. Of course, parishes have weekly opportunities for the sacrament. Don’t hesitate to ask your pastor if, for some reason, you need a special moment.

Once again this year, the Diocese of Rockford will sponsor a diocesan-wide day of confession on the Wednesday before Holy Week, our Be Reconciled program. It will take place in parishes from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. on April 5.

In each of the past three years, many have found Be Reconciled Day to be a comforting way to join others in completing their Lenten renunciation of sin.

“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” By these words of Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent reminds us where we have come from and where we are going.

Truly, thank God Lent is here.