Sunday’s Readings: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Psalms 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17; Romans 5:12-19 OR 5:12, 17-19; Matthew 4:1-11
…from your Pastor’s Desk
“Where have all the Flowers gone?”
A few years ago, it used to be fashionable at this time of the year in certain circles to say to people “Have a happy Lent!” I must say that I was guilty of it myself! I stopped saying it because I think that it made the penitential season of Lent sound just like Easter season which really is the proper liturgical time for great rejoicing.
But I suppose this greeting finds its origin in the Preface for the First Sunday of Lent which said, “each year you give us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the Pascal Mystery with mind and hearts renewed.” However, the new translation of the mass, which we started using in 2011, puts it this way: “each year your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts with the joy of minds made pure”. Aha!
This makes things much clearer; it stresses that Lent is principally a time of purification. It is not the season that is joyful but the fact that it leads us to purify our lives. The joy that is referred to is more serenity than pleasure. It is the serenity that comes from having kept a good Lent, having borne the hardships of penance and fasting and having put quite a bit of extra effort into our prayer lives.
We need to be attentive to the fact that the liturgy (Mass) has various moods and specific emphases for each liturgical season. This is why instrumental music, and sung music in general, is at a minimum and there are no flowers or plants in church. This is why we wear the solemn color purple. This is why we have devotions like the Holy Hour and Stations of the Cross offered for your edification. This is why we pray, fast, and gives alms during this time more than other Seasons of the Church Year. The idea is to express the very different emotions of sorrow, praise and profound devotion – in harmony.
So Lent is a penitential season, but that does not make it a miserable season. There is joy in it, but it is a sober joy, a restrained serenity that comes from being faithful to the traditional Lenten penances which are undertaken to unite ourselves to the sufferings of Jesus. It is a repentant season but is moderated by the knowledge that Christ has won the victory and paid the price of our redemption.
Keep Lent well,
Father Ron
