Lent - a time of violence!

God the Father, in his infinite grace and mercy, sent his Son to earth to save mankind, to shed the blood of the new and everlasting covenant to atone for our sins, to rescue us from the death that sin brings to our lives (Rom 6:23), and to make us like him — for one day we will reach the fullness of grace, glory, and happiness that he holds in heaven.

It turns out that original sin has negatively affected all of humanity; and instead of being drawn to God, to Jesus’ sacrifice, to seek heaven, holiness, and the life in abundance he has brought us (Jn 10:10), we prefer to bind ourselves to earthly things and to live as if God did not exist.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church celebrates the fullness of the mystery of God’s love for humanity in the person of Jesus​​Christ, the centre of all things, in order to call our attention to the reality that we cannot live without God or away from his presence!

Following the cycles of these celebrations, the most important feasts are Christmas, where we relive the mystery of the Saviour who is born among us, a child is given for our salvation (Isaiah 9); and Easter that leads us to the mystery of Christ who suffers, is crucified, dead and buried, and resurrects on the third day.

The truth is that God does nothing without good preparation; and because the Catholic Church is the only Christian Church whose founder is Jesus Christ himself, everything the Holy Church does requires preparation. Thus, the Holy Church invites us to live this wonderful period called Advent in preparation for the great celebration of Christmas — and a time of grace in preparation for Easter, called Lent.

What is Lent? Is it really a time of violence? In what sense? Why? What for? What is all of this for the modern world?

Let us begin today by answering the last of the questions first and answering all others in the course of our spiritual direction today.

In his time, the great prophet Isaiah cried out and proclaimed with a prophetic voice the reality of the people who abandoned their Creator and started to live as if he did not exist. The truth that many would no longer hear, he prophesied boldly:

“Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have despised me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.” (Isaiah 1:2-4)

By being used to represent the very own voice of God, the prophet always condemned sin that was and still is the biggest reason for death and misfortune. He, very much like God himself, would always welcome back to his house and his heart with tender love the sinner but still would invite him to change his attitude, to change his life and stop sinning.

“When you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear: for your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely, Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow.” (Isaiah 1:15-17)

The grace of God would be poured out abundantly and mightily upon all those who would welcome these prophetic words and change their attitudes.

“And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool. If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land.” (Isaiah 1:18-19)

In a similar way, in his days the prophet Ezekiel was raised up by God to cry out the truth, denounce sin and call people to a genuine and truthful conversion, so that the righteousness of God would be seen because he has no pleasure when a sinner dies, but he wants everyone to convert themselves and change their lives, so that they may have the fullness of life.

“Thou therefore, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: “You are continually saying: Our crimes and sins weigh heavily on us; we are wasting away because of them. How are we to go on living?”

Say to them, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die, O house of Israel?” ’Son of man, say to the members of your nation, “The justice of the just shall not deliver him, in what day soever he shall sin: and the wickedness of the wicked shall not hurt him, in what day soever he shall turn from his wickedness: and the just shall not be able to live in his justice, in what day soever he shall sin. Yea, if I shall say to the just that he shall surely live, and he, trusting in his justice, commit iniquity: all his justices shall be forgotten, and in his iniquity, which he hath committed, in the same shall he die. And if I shall say to the wicked: Thou shalt surely die: and he do penance for his sin, and do judgment and justice, And if that wicked man restore the pledge, and render what he had robbed, and walk in the commandments of life, and do no unjust thing: he shall surely live, and shall not die.” (Ezekiel 33:10-15)

The result of the prophecies always depends on how they are welcomed and on the goodwill of the people who listen to it. If you are opened to the grace of God you will have strength to change your life and to live a life rooted by faith, and that means a life that is pleasing to God because without faith it is impossible to please him.

“But without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and is a rewarder to them that seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

How is faith generated in our hearts? It is generated by listening to the preaching based on the word of God (Romans 10: 9). But who preaches the word of God and teaches about what God actually wants out of us?

After the creation of the world many men were good and righteous before God. After a while a few people among mankind were chosen like Noah, Moses, Abraham, etc. for a specific duty. There was a division of the tasks then and certain people like kings, priests and prophets were in charge of preaching, for they were the only ones who received the Spirit of the Lord at the time.

Then Jesus came, who was the very word of God, the holy word that was made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became man (John 1). At the Last Supper he wrote his testament instituting the Holy Mass and from the cross he gave his Holy Mother to humanity in the person of John. It was from the same cross where he died, from which flowed the blood and water from his opened heart that he founded his Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. And it was at Pentecost that his Church began to organise itself and to act in the name of Christ.

Nowadays the Catholic Church is the new Ezekiel, the new Isaiah; it is Christ in the midst of the modern world that, one more time, wants to forget about its Creator, turn its back on him and live the libertine life of sin — the purely carnal life. No! We were not made for that; and the Church, sharing Christ’s voice, cries out every year to the world throughout Lent: convert yourselves! Get back to God!

Most of us know that “Lent” has this name because it is a mention of the period equivalent to forty days. It is forty days because it is the exact time Jesus spent in the desert, where he was tempted by the devil in preparation for the beginning of his ministry. It also recalls the period when the people of God led by Moses walked for forty years also in the desert.

Therefore, Lent is a time when the Church invites us to go to the desert and walk the same steps that Christ walked.

“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert, For the space of forty days; and was tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry. And the devil said to him: If thou be the Son of God, say to this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him: It is written, that Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the devil led him into a high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time; And he said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them. If thou therefore wilt adore before me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answering said to him: It is written: Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him: If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself from hence. For it is written, that He hath given his angels charge over thee, that they keep thee. And that in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering, said to him: It is said: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And all the temptation being ended, the devil departed from him for a time.” (Lk 4:1-13)

It is interesting that St. Luke says that the devil departed from him until another time, AFTER HE HAD HIM TRIED IN EVERY WAY. That means these are all the temptations of the evil one that we need to overcome.

In other words, St. John describes what these three temptations are:

“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth the will of God, abideth for ever.” (1 Jn 2:15-17)

In another moment we are going to reflect deeply on this verse from the first letter of Saint John, but for now, we must think about the temptations that Christ suffered.

Firstly, the devil tempted Jesus to turn the stones into bread, after Jesus had been fasting for forty days without eating anything. This is the concupiscence of the flesh! So, to show that he was not a slave of the body’s appetites, Jesus refused this evil offering — and thereby gave us the remedy against the capital sin of gluttony: fasting!

This fasting is the first practice we are called to do in Lent by the Mother Church: a genuine fasting in which we learn to have self-control over our body, our actions and our lives, living in a moderate and balanced way.

How to fast? Jesus himself teaches us:

“And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest anoint thy head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee.” (Matthew 6:16-18)

Then the evil one offers Jesus power and glory, on condition that he bow before him. This is the concupiscence of the eyes! Jesus was not foolish enough to bow before Satan and worship him in exchange for glory (which, unfortunately, is what many of us do). Many people, even though they are within the Church, are so obsessed with power, glory and fame that they accept whatever it takes for them to become famous. Jesus gives us the remedy against the capital sins of pride and vainglory: prayer!

That is the second practice we are invited to perform during this special period: to intensify our prayers, to be in a much deeper and intimate communion with God, to be more times and constantly at Holy Mass, in prayer with the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, in personal prayer, in reading and meditating about the marvelous Word of God, in a life of intensity seeking the presence of the Lord. If we do it this way we will have our eyes healed and will not be so very much attracted by things that displease our Lord.

Jesus, here in this verse below, teaches us the prayer of the Our Father with precious advice:

“Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven. Therefore when thou dost an almsdeed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth. That thy alms may be in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee.” (Matthew 6:1-4)

Each year, in the universal Church — that is, in every single Catholic Church throughout the world — Ash Wednesday is celebrated, when each of the faithful receives ashes with which a cross is drawn on their forehead. The phrase used at the imposition of the ashes echoes Genesis 3:19: “For dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.”

Jesus himself mentions in the Gospel the penance we are called to do: sackcloth and ashes!

“But whereunto shall I esteem this generation to be like? It is like to children sitting in the market place. Who crying to their companions say: We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have lamented, and you have not mourned. For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they say: “He is possessed.” The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say: “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” And wisdom is justified by her children. Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein were done the most of his miracles, for that they had not done penance. Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida: for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes.” (Matthew 11:16-21)

We want to emphasise that concupiscence is transitory and will pass away as the world passes away. The temptations into which the devil wants us to fall are there to fool us, and to bring us to renounce our right to life, grace, and salvation — the life of God in us — in exchange for miserable moments of carnal pleasure.

We have to combat sin, the world, the evil one and its temptations with the weapons which Christ gives us in this period of Lent and in which the Church is united in penance: fasting, prayer and alms-giving. United we are stronger and this call is directed only to those who are violent or want to become violent!

Whoever wants to abandon sin, addictions, bad habits, bodily desires, the disordered desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, must take their spiritual life by force, must be violent in renouncing sin, increasing their desire to acquire the virtues and the grace of the Lord. One has to be radical, to the extreme of snatching the Kingdom of Heaven by force — and the One who tells us this is Jesus himself:

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.” (Matthew 11:12)

We want to invite you to be violent from this moment on and to assume this Lent as you have never assumed before in your life. Make your purposes with God, fast, do your penances, detach yourself from the flesh, let go of material goods and let us together live this wonderful time of preparation for the Lord’s Easter, where together we will reach the resurrection after the death and the short period of these forty days through the desert of mortification looking to kill the old man in us and allow the new man to live in the violence of union with Christ, for it is Christ who lives in us (cf. Gal 2:20).

“Lord Jesus Christ... At the beginning of Lent, together with your holy and wonderful Church, I want to accept the call to penance, conversion, abandonment of the old life and to assume the new life that comes from your cross. I want to renew the promises of my baptism, renouncing the devil and his temptations. I want to assume in my life the power of your blood and be washed and purified so that I may be renewed from head to toe in body, soul and spirit. Touch me Jesus with your wounds and take away from me the stain the sin left that perverts my ability to love. Come and give me the grace to be what you want me to be. Restore me and bring me to live my vocation.

I renounce now in the name of Jesus to every addiction, every state of conditioning my mind and body to the unbridled passions, to every filth that sin has left in me. Put your hands in my mind and restore in me the pureness of thoughts, Lord. Put your thoughts in me so that I can say with St. Paul that I have in me the mind of Christ.

Renew the deepest feeling in my soul, Holy Spirit of God, and strengthen me so that I do not conform myself to the mentality of the world, with the desires of the flesh. Along with Saint John of the Cross I want to renounce my desires to find what my heart really wishes. Lead me, Spirit of God, onto this one-way path, onto this narrow road, onto that path that leads me to the heart of God.

Virgin Mary, you who were one day that pregnant young woman who has been in haste to serve your cousin, Saint Elizabeth, help me to serve those who need a word, a hug, an eyesight, a tenderness, an outstretched hand, who needs spiritual or financial help. Give me a pure heart like yours and open my eyes to see the reality of my misery. Mother of God and mine, be my queen and guide my steps in this desert of Lent, so that I may be more like Christ, your son and my Lord.

Father, I now offer you the purposes for this Lent... (present your intentions to the Lord).

For all the graces that I believe I have received in this time of violence of prayer, I praise, adore, honour and exalt you, God of my life, glorious, holy and wonderful Lord. Blessed be thou for ever. Hallelujah. Amen!”

Let us, each day, renew our purpose of being better and holier in these forty days of Lent. It is a time of grace! It’s a time of blessings! It is a time of healing and liberation! It is a time of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, through the cross of Christ! It’s a time to better prepare ourselves for how we are going to live the rest of the year! More than New Year’s resolutions, 2019 will only be new if it is holy and that is what we really want!

May God bless us and give us the grace to live this Lent in its essence - the violence!