If March 17 is the day when everyone’s Catholic, Ash Wednesday is the day when everyone’s Catholic. Your New Year’s resolutions haven’t worked out so well? Here’s another opportunity to give up wine, chocolate, or junk TV for six weeks.
But for Catholics with an active faith life, Lent means much more. It’s about Jesus and what he taught us in his life, death, and resurrection. For us, it’s not just about giving up things we love or adding service; it’s about modifying our lives to be more Christ-like. As Pope Benedict XVI said in his Lenten message:
… 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…
For me, Lent will be an attempt to establish more intentionality in my life, to the way I eat to the way I speak to others. I’ll also be spending time each night reading 40-Day Journey with Joan Chittister. Hopefully, I’ll come out on the other side a few pounds lighter and a little gentler, kinder, and calmer.
Continual conversion isn’t easy. It pricks at you and pushes you into uncomfortable places. But the alternative is so much worse.
