The Beauty Of Lent – Revisited

(By Fr. Dexter Brereton)

I thought I would begin this morning by helping us to situate ourselves in the current season of Lent. By itself, Lent has no meaning and to find the fullness of the meaning of Lent we need to look beyond Lent to the feast of Easter, when as Christians we celebrate the mystery which stands at the centre of our faith: At the centre of our Faith is not a holy book, the bible, it is not a set of teachings, at the centre of our faith is a living person Jesus Christ who we recognize as :

God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, (in other words whatever the Father was, the Son was that too in equal measure). Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right and of the Father.

Brothers and sisters, our faith tells us that Jesus Christ achieved our redemption through his suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into glory. We refer to these events, this movement from suffering and death to resurrection ascension to God’s right hand as the Paschal Mystery. As we say in the Eucharist, by dying he destroyed our death, by rising he restored our life. This is the meaning of Easter.  This is our central conviction. On this central conviction our faith rises or it falls. The paschal mystery has two aspects:

1. by his death, Christ liberates us from sin;
2. by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life.

Thus it is that roughly two and a half months every year, the entire Church goes on retreat. We enter a time of deep introspection as we unveil ourselves before the Lord. It is a time when the church opens wide the treasure houses of grace and provides us with frequent opportunities to know and to come closer to the Lord – we do this in the form of Holy Mass, parish or group retreats, special[simpleazon-image align=”right” asin=”0829441700″ locale=”us” height=”500″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yJEPgliUL.jpg” width=”333″] seminars, spiritual devotions and in a very special way, the sacrament of Reconciliation, commonly known as confession. The spirit of this season is rendered in these beautiful words from the prophet Joel:

Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks-

Come back to me with all your heart,

Fasting, weeping, mourning.

Let your hearts be broken not your garments torn,

Turn to the Lord your God again,

For he is all tenderness and compassion,

Slow to anger, rich in graciousness,

And ready to relent.

The mercy and tenderness of a loving God has always been a theme that is dear to the heart of our Holy Father Pope Francis. Thus it was that last Friday, the Pope made an announcement of a jubilee of mercy which will begin this coming feast of the Immaculate conception. Let us listen to the Holy Father’s words:

Dear brothers and sisters, I have often thought about how the Church might make clear its mission of being a witness to mercy. It is a journey that begins with a spiritual conversion. For this reason, I have decided to call an extraordinary Jubilee that is to have the mercy of God at its center. It shall be a Holy Year of Mercy. We want to live this Year in the light of the Lord’s words: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (cf. Lk 6:36)”

This Holy Year will begin on this coming Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and will end on November 20, 2016, the Sunday dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – and living face of the Father’s mercy. I entrust the organization of this Jubilee to the Pontifical Council for Promotion of the New Evangelization, that [the dicastery] might animate it as a new stage in the journey of the Church on its mission to bring to every person the Gospel of mercy.

I am convinced that the whole Church will find in this Jubilee the joy needed to rediscover and make fruitful the mercy of God, with which all of us are called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time. From this moment, we entrust this Holy Year to the Mother of Mercy, that she might turn her gaze upon us and watch over our journey.

The Gospel  reading from John this morning reminds us that “God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world but so that through him the world might be saved.” In a similar manner, Francis has fundamentally challenged the way we live our Catholicism. There are some of us , who see ourselves primarily as warriors fighting against an aggressive society that wants to eradicate the church. It is important then to remember that the best defence is a strong offence. I remember Pope Francis in the famous interview he gave with editors of Jesuit magazines around the world explained how he saw the church. He said:

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.

Francis then, issues a timely reminder that the fundamental mission of the church remains much, much wider than issuing a word of condemnation against abuses of all kinds. At the heart of our mission is a living person, Jesus Christ who is at the same time a message, a message of love, a message which attracts and should set our hearts on fire.