WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR LENT?

 

WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR LENT?

            Lent will arrive on Wednesday, so get ready to hold back on the alleluia!  Part of our collective penance during Lent is to suppress the alleluia, which is one of our chief expressions of joy.  But is there no joy during this holy season?  Is it all gloom and misery?  Not if we follow the Savior.  At the Last Supper, Jesus speaks of his interior joy, even as he knows of the horrible things that will soon happen to him.  He says to the apostles, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (Jn 15:11).  Later, in his prayer to the Father, he says, “But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves” (Jn 17:13).  If Christ continued to experience joy during his Passion, certainly we also may be filled with his joy during the penitential season of Lent.  And in our own passion.

            Jesus experienced joy at every moment of his life because he always did his Father’s will.  When he was tempted to turn away from it, being so distressed that he sweat blood, he offered a profound prayer: “‘Father if you are willing, remove this chalice from me; nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’  And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him” (Luke 22:42-43).  Jesus kept his human joy because he chose to do the Father’s will at all cost, and the Father sent him help.  This will be our experience – in a much lesser degree – during the season of Lent, when we keep the communal penances such as fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and refrain from eating meat on Fridays.  God may call us to choose an additional penance or two, such as giving up a favorite food or snack, waking up early to attend the 6:30 a.m. Mass on Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday, or reading a spiritual book rather than watching mindless television or scouring social media.  We can be sure that if we keep our penances, and remain in the Father’s will, we will keep the joy which is ours in Christ.

            Joy does not cancel pain or suffering.  The joy of God is real.  Unlike worldly joy, it is not built on denial or fabrication or passing pleasure.  Christian joy does not deny the hurt.  It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and not dependent on circumstances.  Joy is never withheld from the righteous person who meditates always on the law of the Lord.  Such a one is aware of God’s presence and walks with Him.  He or she becomes “like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season,” according to Psalm 1.  Every season belongs to God, and those who do his will bear the fruit of joy, even as they also experience pains and sorrows in imitation of their Savior.  He affirmed that “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).  Jesus lets us participate in the Cross he bore, that we may know the joy that comes from the Father. 

You do not need to seek a cross, it will be given to you, if indeed you are not already bearing it.  But all of us are invited now to take on an extra penance, an additional sacrifice of something that is good and pleasing to us, in honor of the Savior.  A regular practice of self-denial is a training ground for the Calvary which the Lord will have us walk.  It is an act of love and thanksgiving, pleasing to Him.  Of course, we must avoid extreme penances, which more than a few Saints fell into and later repented of it.  We must do nothing to hurt our health or lessen our ability to fulfill our duties.  But in our modern age the greater temptation is to indulge ourselves and avoid anything that bears a cost.  This is not the way of the Redeemer.  Rather, as Saint Peter teaches, his Way is to “Rejoice in the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ” (1 Pet 4:13).  May it be so, and may each one of you have a penitential and joy-filled Lent!