Once again the season of Lent is upon us. For those of us who are older, we may feel that Lent has lost its sting of penance. For those younger, there may well be the attitude of “What’s the fuss?” The fuss of course is that these days, beginning with Ash Wednesday and ending with the Easter feast, are set aside as a time of prayerful reflection and voluntary penance so that when we do come to the great feast of Easter we will be renewed in the “springtime of grace” the east embodies.

    There is a sense of loss in recalling the stringent rules of bygone Lents such as one full meal a day, not only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, but every day during Lent except Sundays. And we recall abstaining from meat on every Friday and Ash Wednesday. Beyond the loss experienced, the real challenge for young and old alike is “What is Lent ’07 for me?”
I would offer you that beyond the foods, etc., you give up as a penance and what devotional activities you take part in, there is an even more basic challenge in Lent. The challenge of faith accepted, faith lived!

    Which is to say that maybe during this Lenten season we take time to focus on the gift of faith we have received. For faith is not something we decide upon; it is a gift God freely gives. Faith is not merely the ability to believe in God and all he has done for us, but mostly the ability to accept that God is active in our lives.

    Faith is not static. Faith is like the yeast in the dough, an active grace in our lives. It is not meant to be packaged up in our mind, but lived to the full in every instance of our lives. To put it another way – do I simply state, “Of course I believe,” or is it the grace of faith that motivates me to be and to become even more a disciple of Christ?

    Active faith is an acknowledgment that God calls me into a real living relationship with him. He is not looking for a nod of our head in belief, he wants the surrender of our very wills to him and to his truth.

    Saint Paul wrote that “The truth will set you free.” This freeing truth is that we belong to God. It stands against the egocentric lies of our materialist society; a society that teaches we belong to and are accountable only to ourselves. If you need an example of this mind set, think only of the excessive pandering to human weakness found in the media today. There we see that the sanctity of marriage is demeaned and the sanctity of sex is seen to have only recreational value. There are many other examples that can be found in society’s embracing greed, pride, gluttony, spiritual sloth, etc.

   That is why I believe this Lent ’07 is not the time to say, “What’s the fuss?” or to lament the strict Lents of the past but to honestly examine our individual lives to understand what the gift of faith means to us: a mere nod of the head or a willingness to surrender to God. If we are willing to do this we can seek the grace to move beyond faith as a mere nod of the head to the willing surrender of our hearts to the one who loves us unconditionally and seeks only our love in return. And doing this will make Easter ’07 a most remarkable feast!