This week, we have entered into the Lenten season. Each year, the Church presents us with this time of prayer, reflection and penance.
These 40 days call us to a deeper focus on elements of our soul that we should be tending to all year round. But it is easy to look away from our sins and faults. We can find ourselves putting off that exercise to “some other day” that never seems to come. Lent is a time of grace intended to help us confront sin, temptation and the reality of the coming moment when we will stand before the Lord.
Those themes and goals of the Lenten season could seem to be merely an exercise in a necessary negativity. Honest self-assessment is a hard task. But in the context of faith, Lent is just the opposite. It is profoundly positive and reassuring. It is, at its heart, a reminder of the freedom that we are called to and the dignity that we bear.
In honesty, every one of us knows that we are a sinner. And each sin, be it mortal or venial, damages us and the harmony with the people and world around us. We are separated from God’s love in a way that we cannot heal on our own.
Even more, sin builds on itself. Small sins weaken our spiritual resolve and open us to greater sins. We can become trapped in that cycle and even addicted to acts, thoughts and omissions that are contrary to God’s plan for us. In the end sin leads the sinner to feeling imprisoned in the evil we wish to escape.
Ultimately we recognize our loss of freedom and the diminishment of the dignity that God has placed within us.
Some years ago, at the end of a visit to celebrate Mass for jail inmates, one of the inmates came up to me as I was packing up to leave. He quietly asked if he could talk to me. He quickly told me his life story with all of his regrets. But then he said that I had talked in the homily about forgiveness. He asked, “Do you think God would forgive even me after all of this?” That question was a cry for freedom and a search for lost dignity. It was the message of Lent.
We should use this Lent to examine our conscience and where we find sin. We can begin by simply telling God that we are sorry.
We can join the tax collector in the Gospel of Luke. He stood in the back of the temple and simply said, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” (Lk, 18:13). Those were not only words. They represented a conversion of heart.
We can also learn from Zaccheus, another tax collector. When Jesus called him down out of the tree, Zaccheus renounced his sin and made amends for his past (Lk, 19:8).
Finally, we might reflect on the good thief, crucified next to Jesus. At his final hour he asked Jesus only to remember Him in His kingdom. And in return Jesus told him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Lk, 23:43).
Each of these examples demonstrates the possibility of turning from evil. They show the renewal of freedom and dignity that had been lost to sin.
Let’s use this Lent to renounce our sin and convert our hearts. Be done with bad relationships. Seek reconciliation. Come back to Sunday Mass if you have been away. Help the poor and the lonely. Observe the Lenten abstinence from meat on Fridays. Do all this as an offering to Jesus.
Above all, be sure to make a Lenten confession.
I especially invite all who have not done so for a long time to take part in our annual Be Reconciled Day April 9 when our parishes will seek to offer the opportunity for confession from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
As St. Paul tells us, Lent is an acceptable time. It is the day of salvation. Jesus waits to forgive us and heal us. We need only turn to Him.
