As we begin Lent this week, we need to readjust our sights, our hearts, our attitudes. How will we approach Lent this year?

 

For some, Lent seems like a negative time in the annual prayer of the Church. The temptation can be to engage Lent as a period of gloom. 

 

It can seem like it’s all about sin and guilt with the constant preaching and urging us to go to confession during this season (perhaps it hits home because we haven’t been to confession in a long time?) along with the Church requiring her faithful to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent.

 

That along with the columns and homilies urging us to fast even beyond Ash Wednesday and Good Friday can all seem overwhelming.

 

But in this first week of Lent, right from the beginning, we should instead step back and recognize the beauty of Lent. And most especially, we should remind ourselves that this season is a call to open our hearts to grace that restores and enhances our dignity and who we are as creations of a loving God.

 

Because of the damage left over from the sin of Adam and Eve, every one of us must contend with a heart and a conscience that is tempted to become sluggish and self-indulgent. We could give in to the desire to see only good in ourselves and to overlook or rationalize our sins and faults. And at the same time, we feel the temptation to see the sins and faults in others while being unwilling to attribute to them at least a good intent.

 

Put this way, we recognize this brokenness as a recipe for anger, bitterness and disharmony. It can lead to the kind of unhappiness, even violence, and the family and social breakdown that is so dominant in our society at this moment.

 

Lent, then, is a season that helps us to step back and say, thank God there is a better way. There is a hope for each of us that can make us better than we have been. And it can show us how to flourish as a people, as a society.

 

Lent reminds us that sin is not just “breaking a rule.” Whether mortal or venial, every sin is an act of rebellion against God’s love. As such it deforms each of us. 

 

Our first task then, is to recognize our offense against God and to turn to Him asking for His forgiveness. As part of that request, our hearts must resolve to break with those rebellious deforming actions or thoughts.

 

The beauty of this season then is revealed. We are reminded over and over, in Mass, prayers and devotions, that God does forgive. And He does so again and again, 70 times seven times. 

 

Our turning away from sin begins a process of healing like is seen with many ailments of the body. When we stop our sinful actions, our union with God begins to be renewed. Our soul is made better. We recognize our own dignity.

 

But like the healing of the body, our efforts for our soul must be real. A simply casual attitude or an empty promise to do better is not enough. That is why Lent gives us actions, guidelines and encouragements for healing. 

 

Please don’t forget that again this year, as part of this healing, the Diocese of Rockford will celebrate Be Reconciled Day. On Wednesday, March 24, confessions will be heard throughout the day in all of our parishes, to the extent possible. Of course check your parish for details.

 

This year, let’s engage in Lent positively and joyfully. God has guided the Church to give us this great gift.