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Lent
Learn about Lent
“…through the personal encounter with
our Redeemer and through fasting, almsgiving and prayer, the
journey of conversion towards Easter leads us to rediscover
our Baptism.”
— Pope Benedict XVI's
2011 Lenten Message
THE 2011 LENTEN
SEASON
Our observance of Lent begins this year
on March 9th, Ash Wednesday, a day of fast and abstinence for
Catholics. At Mass on Ash Wednesday, the imposition of ashes
replicates an ancient penitential practice and symbolizes
our dependence upon God's mercy and forgiveness.
During Lent, the baptized are called to
renew their baptismal commitment as others prepare to be
baptized through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, a
period of learning and discernment for individuals who
have declared their desire to become Catholics.
The three traditional pillars of Lenten
observance are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The Church asks
us to surrender ourselves to prayer and to the reading of
Scripture, to fasting and to giving alms. The fasting that all
do together on Fridays is but a sign of the daily Lenten
discipline of individuals and households: fasting for certain
periods of time, fasting from certain foods, but also fasting
from other things and activities. Likewise, the giving of alms
is some effort to share this world equally—not only through
the distribution of money, but through
the sharing of our time and talents.
The key to fruitful observance of these
practices is to recognize their link to baptismal renewal. We
are called not just to abstain from sin during Lent but to
true conversion of our hearts and minds as followers of
Christ. We recall those waters in which we were baptized into
Christ’s death, died to sin and
evil, and began new life in Christ.
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
BENEDICT XVI
FOR LENT 2011
“You were buried with him in
baptism,
in which you were also
raised with him.” (cf. Col 2: 12)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Lenten period, which leads us to the
celebration of Holy Easter, is for the Church a most valuable
and important liturgical time, in view of which I am pleased
to offer a specific word in order that it may be lived with
due diligence. As she awaits the definitive encounter with her
Spouse in the eternal Easter, the Church community, assiduous
in prayer and charitable works, intensifies her journey in
purifying the spirit, so as to draw more abundantly from the
Mystery of Redemption the new life in Christ
the Lord (cf. Preface I of Lent).
1. This very life was already bestowed
upon us on the day of our Baptism, when we “become sharers in
Christ’s death and Resurrection”, and there began for us “the
joyful and exulting adventure of his disciples” (Homily on the
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 10 January, 2010). In his
Letters, St. Paul repeatedly insists on the singular communion
with the Son of God that this washing brings about. The fact
that, in most cases, Baptism is received in infancy highlights
how it is a gift of God: no one earns eternal life through
their own efforts. The mercy of God, which cancels sin and, at
the same time, allows us to experience in our lives “the mind
of Christ Jesus” (Phil 2: 5), is given to men and women
freely. The Apostle to the Gentiles, in the Letter to the
Philippians, expresses the meaning of the transformation that
takes place through participation in the death and
resurrection of Christ, pointing to its goal: that “I may come
to know him and the power of his resurrection, and partake of
his sufferings by being molded to the pattern of his death,
striving towards the goal of resurrection from the dead” (Phil
3: 10-11). Hence, Baptism is not a rite from the past, but the
encounter with Christ, which informs the entire existence of
the baptized, imparting divine life and calling for sincere
conversion; initiated and supported by Grace, it permits the
baptized
to reach the adult stature of Christ.
A particular connection binds Baptism to
Lent as the favorable time to experience this saving Grace.
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council exhorted all of the
Church’s Pastors to make greater use “of the baptismal
features proper to the Lenten liturgy” (Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum concilium, n. 109). In fact, the
Church has always associated the Easter Vigil with the
celebration of Baptism: this Sacrament realizes the great
mystery in which man dies to sin, is made a sharer in the new
life of the Risen Christ and receives the same Spirit of God
who raised Jesus from the dead (cf. Rm 8: 11). This free gift
must always be rekindled in each one of us, and Lent offers us
a path like that of the catechumenate, which, for the
Christians of the early Church, just as for catechumens today,
is an irreplaceable school of faith and Christian life. Truly,
they live their Baptism as
an act that shapes their entire existence.
2. In order to undertake more seriously
our journey towards Easter and prepare ourselves to celebrate
the Resurrection of the Lord – the most joyous and solemn
feast of the entire liturgical year – what could be more
appropriate than allowing ourselves to be guided by the Word
of God? For this reason, the Church, in the Gospel texts of
the Sundays of Lent, leads us to a particularly intense
encounter with the Lord, calling us to retrace the steps of
Christian initiation: for catechumens, in preparation for
receiving the Sacrament of rebirth; for the baptized, in light
of the new and decisive steps to be taken in the sequela
Christi and
a fuller giving of oneself to him.
The First Sunday of the Lenten journey
reveals our condition as human beings here on earth. The
victorious battle against temptation, the starting point of
Jesus’ mission, is an invitation to become aware of our own
fragility in order to accept the Grace that frees from sin and
infuses new strength in Christ – the way, the truth and the
life (cf. Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum, n. 25). It
is a powerful reminder that Christian faith implies, following
the example of Jesus and in union with him, a battle “against
the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this
world” (Eph 6: 12), in which the devil is at work and never
tires – even today – of tempting whoever wishes to draw close
to the Lord: Christ emerges victorious to open also our hearts
to hope and guide
us in overcoming the seductions of evil.
The Gospel of the Transfiguration of the
Lord puts before our eyes the glory of Christ, which
anticipates the resurrection and announces the divinization of
man. The Christian community becomes aware that Jesus leads
it, like the Apostles Peter, James and John “up a high
mountain by themselves” (Mt 17: 1), to receive once again in
Christ, as sons and daughters in the Son, the gift of the
Grace of God: “This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my
favor. Listen to him” (Mt 17: 5). It is the invitation to take
a distance from the noisiness of everyday life in order to
immerse oneself in God’s presence. He desires to hand down to
us, each day, a Word that penetrates the depths of our spirit,
where we discern good from evil (cf. Heb 4:12),
reinforcing our will to follow the Lord.
The question that Jesus puts to the
Samaritan woman: “Give me a drink” (Jn 4: 7), is presented to
us in the liturgy of the third Sunday; it expresses the
passion of God for every man and woman, and wishes to awaken
in our hearts the desire for the gift of “a spring of water
within, welling up for eternal life” (Jn 4: 14): this is the
gift of the Holy Spirit, who transforms Christians into “true
worshipers,” capable of praying to the Father “in spirit and
truth” (Jn 4: 23). Only this water can extinguish our thirst
for goodness, truth and beauty! Only this water, given to us
by the Son, can irrigate the deserts of our restless and
unsatisfied soul, until it “finds rest in God”, as
per the famous words of St. Augustine.
The Sunday of the man born blind presents
Christ as the light of the world. The Gospel confronts each
one of us with the question: “Do you believe in the Son of
man?” “Lord, I believe!” (Jn 9: 35. 38), the man born blind
joyfully exclaims, giving voice to all believers. The miracle
of this healing is a sign that Christ wants not only to give
us sight, but also open our interior vision, so that our faith
may become ever deeper and we may recognize him as our only
Savior. He illuminates all that is dark in life and leads men
and women
to live as “children of the light”.
On the fifth Sunday, when the
resurrection of Lazarus is proclaimed, we are faced with the
ultimate mystery of our existence: “I am the resurrection and
the life… Do you believe this?” (Jn 11: 25-26). For the
Christian community, it is the moment to place with sincerity
– together with Martha – all of our hopes in Jesus of
Nazareth: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the
Son of God, the one who was to come into this world” (Jn 11:
27). Communion with Christ in this life prepares us to
overcome the barrier of death, so that we may live eternally
with him. Faith in the resurrection of the dead and hope in
eternal life open our eyes to the ultimate meaning of our
existence: God created men and women for resurrection and
life, and this truth gives an authentic and definitive meaning
to human history, to the personal and social lives of men and
women, to culture, politics and the economy. Without the light
of faith, the entire universe finishes shut within a
tomb devoid of any future, any hope.
The Lenten journey finds its fulfillment
in the Paschal Triduum, especially in the Great Vigil of the
Holy Night: renewing our baptismal promises, we reaffirm that
Christ is the Lord of our life, that life which God bestowed
upon us when we were reborn of “water and Holy Spirit”, and we
profess again our firm commitment to respond to the action of
the
Grace in order to be his disciples.
3. By immersing ourselves into the death
and resurrection of Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism,
we are moved to free our hearts every day from the burden of
material things, from a self-centered relationship with the
“world” that impoverishes us and prevents us from being
available and open to God and our neighbor. In Christ, God
revealed himself as Love (cf. 1Jn 4: 7-10). The Cross of
Christ, the “word of the Cross”, manifests God’s saving power
(cf. 1Cor 1: 18), that is given to raise men and women anew
and bring them salvation: it is love in its most extreme form
(cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, n. 12). Through the
traditional practices of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, which
are an expression of our commitment to conversion, Lent
teaches us how to live the love of Christ in an ever more
radical way. Fasting, which can have various motivations,
takes on a profoundly religious significance for the
Christian: by rendering our table poorer, we learn to overcome
selfishness in order to live in the logic of gift and love; by
bearing some form of deprivation – and not just what is in
excess – we learn to look away from our “ego”, to discover
Someone close to us and to recognize God in the face of so
many brothers and sisters. For Christians, fasting, far from
being depressing, opens us ever more to God and to the needs
of others, thus allowing love of God to become also love
of our neighbor (cf. Mk 12: 31).
In our journey, we are often faced with
the temptation of accumulating and love of money that
undermine God’s primacy in our lives. The greed of possession
leads to violence, exploitation and death; for this, the
Church, especially during the Lenten period, reminds us to
practice almsgiving – which is the capacity to share. The
idolatry of goods, on the other hand, not only causes us to
drift away from others, but divests man, making him unhappy,
deceiving him, deluding him without fulfilling its promises,
since it puts materialistic goods in the place of God, the
only source of life. How can we understand God’s paternal
goodness, if our heart is full of egoism and our own projects,
deceiving us that our future is guaranteed? The temptation is
to think, just like the rich man in the parable: “My soul, you
have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come…”.
We are all aware of the Lord’s judgment: “Fool! This very
night the demand will be made for your soul…” (Lk 12: 19-20).
The practice of almsgiving is a reminder of God’s primacy and
turns our attention towards others, so that we may rediscover
how good
our Father is, and receive his mercy.
During the entire Lenten period, the
Church offers us God’s Word with particular abundance. By
meditating and internalizing the Word in order to live it
every day, we learn a precious and irreplaceable form of
prayer; by attentively listening to God, who continues to
speak to our hearts, we nourish the itinerary of faith
initiated on the day of our Baptism. Prayer also allows us to
gain a new concept of time: without the perspective of
eternity and transcendence, in fact, time simply directs our
steps towards a horizon without a future. Instead, when we
pray, we find time for God, to understand that his “words will
not pass away” (cf. Mk 13: 31), to enter into that intimate
communion with Him “that no one shall take from you” (Jn 16:
22), opening us to the
hope that does not disappoint, eternal life.
In synthesis, the Lenten journey, in
which we are invited to contemplate the Mystery of the Cross,
is meant to reproduce within us “the pattern of his death” (Ph
3: 10), so as to effect a deep conversion in our lives; that
we may be transformed by the action of the Holy Spirit, like
St. Paul on the road to Damascus; that we may firmly orient
our existence according to the will of God; that we may be
freed of our egoism, overcoming the instinct to dominate
others and opening us to the love of Christ. The Lenten period
is a favorable time to recognize our weakness and to accept,
through a sincere inventory of our life, the renewing Grace of
the Sacrament
of Penance, and walk resolutely towards Christ.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, through the
personal encounter with our Redeemer and through fasting,
almsgiving and prayer, the journey of conversion towards
Easter leads us to rediscover our Baptism. This Lent, let us
renew our acceptance of the Grace that God bestowed upon us at
that moment, so that it may illuminate and guide all of our
actions. What the Sacrament signifies and realizes, we are
called to experience every day by following Christ in an ever
more generous and authentic manner. In this our itinerary, let
us entrust ourselves to the Virgin Mary, who generated the
Word of God in faith and in the flesh, so that we may immerse
ourselves – just as she did – in the death and resurrection of
her Son Jesus, and possess eternal life.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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