Dear Friends,
Each time the Season of Lent comes around, I find a simple statement very helpful in focusing on the weeks ahead, such as, ‘Live your Baptism more truthfully.’ Lent helps us refocus as we are often reminded through the Alpha, RCIA and Sacramental Programs of that journey to Faith that challenges us at every age, young and old.
Two key words for Lent are conversion and grace as we open our hearts to being reawakened to the God within us, in whose name we were baptised. That’s the outcome of the RCIA journey of course and one of the reasons we admire converts. My mother was a convert from the Anglican Church and a most remarkable woman of faith, prayer and trust in God. Yes, we admire converts, but then aren’t we all supposed to be converts? Conversion is not just for the ‘others’, it is for each of us.
The Holy Father speaks of Lent as ‘our path of conversion as individuals and as a community’ and quotes St Paul: ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich’ (2 Cor 8:9). The power of the Liturgy lies in what we do together and there is power too in our taking our Lenten journey together – as parish, as family and so on – the unique dynamic of ‘our path of conversion as individuals and as a community’.
We reflect on the baptismal features of Lenten liturgy where the Scriptures invite us to die to sin so that we will share more and more in the new life of the Risen Christ. Our RCIA candidates anticipate the wonderful celebration of the Easter Vigil where some are baptised with water and others profess their faith as members of the Catholic Church. This celebration reminds each of us of our own baptism; this reminder continues throughout the Easter Season when the Sprinkling Rite replaces the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass.
This new life in Christ was already bestowed upon us on the day of our baptism. We are ‘sharers in Christ’s death and Resurrection’ and on ‘the joyful and exciting adventure of his disciples’. This adventure is one of ongoing conversion, assisted by our personal choice of Lenten ‘practices’ that will help us be more open to the grace of Christ’s life within us – abstinence and fasting; more loving behaviour in our family; greater attentiveness to the sick, elderly and lonely, those feeling isolated from our Church community; generous support of Project Compassion; more family prayer; pondering the Scriptures, and so on.
Will our experience of Lent this year be a burden or an experience of saving Grace? The latter is far more engaging because it reminds us that our baptism is about our encounter with Christ. Perhaps there’s an invitation here for us as we prepare for worship – to sit with the Lenten readings, particularly the Gospel, perhaps with the assistance of Lenten reflections or prayer resources available on-line or one of the Lenten booklets from Catholic bookshops.
Speaking of baptism, do you know the date of yours? Why not find out and celebrate it?