Sunday the 18th of February 2024 - The First Sunday of Lent

Genesis 9:8-15/ Psalm 24(25)/ 1 Peter 3:18-22/ Mark 1:12-15

On Wednesday we entered the season of Lent. A period of forty days, excluding the Sundays, in which we prepare to celebrate Easter. I understand that the word Lent comes from an old English word for springtime. In spring we look forward to new beginnings, nature comes to life again after the barren winter. It holds the promise of the summer to come. In Lent we seek new beginnings in our faith, and we look forward to the promise the resurrection of Jesus brings.

We all know that in Lent we are expected to give up things. The secular world we live in has a collective memory of this Christian tradition embedded in its history with people giving up something for lent. Lent for us should be much more than the vague remembrance of a tradition. Lent has a deep and real meaning for us. In Lent we join Jesus in his forty days in the wilderness. We engage in the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Through these actions we prepare for Easter, we replenish our faith, renewing our spiritual life.

Prayer is how we engage with God. By taking ourselves away from the distraction of daily life we can better engage with God in prayer. Lent is an ideal opportunity to carve out some time for meaningful prayer, which is conversation with God. As with all conversation it should be two way. We can be prone to bombarding God with our words and thoughts without ever stopping to listen for a reply. Our prayer can become simply based on demands and only then made in times of need. Yes, it is good to pray for our needs and the needs of others, but we must also remember to pray in other ways as well. Our prayer should include prayers of praise and adoration acknowledging God in his almighty kingship. We also need to acknowledge our failings and pray for forgiveness and the strength to overcome our temptations. Finally, we should not forget to pray in thanksgiving for all that we have received from God.

During lent we are given many opportunities to find time to pray outside of the private prayer time we may find for ourselves. There are opportunities to pray the Stations of The Cross, when we can consider in depth what Jesus went through to achieve our salvation. We can spend time in Adoration in one of our churches in the close presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We can prepare for and receive the sacrament of confession freeing us from the bonds of sin that hold us back in our relationship with God and those around us. Everything we do should emanate from prayer.

Fasting is a lost art in our society. There are many ways of dieting and health related eating regimes around, but these are not fasting. Fasting is voluntarily going without food or any other enjoyable thing we might indulge ourselves with under normal circumstances. Although there may well be health benefits from fasting the real purpose of fasting is spiritual. We can deny ourselves certain food and drink, we can abstain from activities such as social media or television, we can substitute pastimes for other activities that might benefit others. There are many ways in which we can engage in a spiritual fast.

We fast so that we can better concentrate on what we receive from God and look beyond the things of this life in anticipation of the things to come in the next. We fast from those things that give us passing pleasure in this life so that we can appreciate the things that will give us everlasting joy in eternal life. Fasting creates a hunger and thirst for things beyond this passing existence creating a longing for God and the joys of the spirit. Fasting from the pleasures of this passing world also helps us to look beyond the challenges of the pain and suffering we might also encounter here and now. Fasting is a weapon we can use to fight against the sin and weakness we have due to our fallen human nature. Fasting instils a discipline in us, a discipline that is lacking in today’s world of consumerism when we are encouraged to get as much as possible as soon as possible. In fasting during Lent, we join Jesus in his forty days in the desert. We become better able to deal with the temptations put before us by the devil through the things of this world. We prepare for the return of Jesus, we foster a closer relationship with God, we encourage a longing for the things beyond this world, to be better able to celebrate the coming festival of Easter.

Stemming from our prayer and fasting is a willingness to help others and we do this through almsgiving. We should always seek to give of ourselves for the betterment of others. During lent we can focus more on the virtue of almsgiving and divert the resources we might save from fasting into a particular need such as one of our catholic charities. It is common practice in the world today to raise money for various causes but to shout about it as we do so. While all giving to a needy cause is a good thing shouting about how good we are in doing it is not. We should do our almsgiving in quiet prayerfulness so that only God knows what we are sacrificing, and our reward will be from him and not from public acclamation.

This time of lent is a time to reflect, to consider where we might be failing to live a Christian life in imitation of Jesus and his care for all. Through Lenten prayer, fasting and giving, we express our sorrow for sin, and we turn away from the world and towards God and others, we receive forgiveness for our sins, we reconcile ourselves with God, and we fulfil our responsibilities to those in need.

Let us join Jesus in the dessert, repent and believe the Good News, and be well prepared to celebrate his resurrection at Easter.

God Bless Brendan.