Make This the Best Lent Ever!

Every Ash Wednesday the Church begins the holy, penitential season of Lent. It is a period of 40 days of prayer and penance. Lent is reminiscent of the 40 years that the Hebrews wandered in the desert after their delivery from the slavery of Egypt, and of the 40 days and nights that Our Lord fasted and prayed in the desert.  At the very core of Lent is the Paschal Mystery – the Passion Death and Resurrection of Jesus. All we do during Lent is to help us enter more deeply into this Mystery. It is all about dying to our self and living in Christ.  Lent invites us to be united with Christ in His sacrifice of love. 
           
So, how do we enter into Lent and what do we plan to do to make it spiritually fruitful? Redouble our prayer? Absolutely! Great! Mortify ourselves by reducing the amount we eat, refraining from foods we like, abstaining from meat on days even beyond Ash Wednesday and Fridays of Lent? Super! Give alms to the poor and do deeds of mercy for those who need help? Excellent! But if we want to do something that will bring all of our efforts together and will draw us closer to Our Lord, we should endeavor to participate in Mass every day. Coming to Mass brings us right to the heart of Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection. Coming to the Eucharistic Sacrifice every day will provide all of the grace and strength we need to follow through with our Lenten resolutions and will unite us with Our Lord Himself. 
           
The Church teaches us that when we come to Mass, we are coming to the source and summit of our life (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1324). The Catechism teaches us, “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the Blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely, Christ himself, our Pasch” (CCC #1324). We can say that all the good works and prayers that we do in our life find their origin in Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection and point back to the redemption that is made present on the altar at Mass.  The Mass is the bedrock of our spiritual life because our redemption happens there.  As Sacrosanctum Concilium, Vatican II’s decree on the Sacred Liturgy states,  “For the liturgy, ‘through which the work of redemption is accomplished,’ most of all in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ…”.
           
As the Second Vatican Council taught, “At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, Our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the Sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages until he should come again and to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection…” (SC, #47). The Mass is all that, and it is made present on the altar every day for us!  It is how we are to be united with the Lord Jesus.

So, if you want to walk the Way of the Cross this Lent, come to Mass.

If you want to deepen your prayer this Lent, come to Mass.

If you want to plumb the depths of God’s Word in Holy Scripture this Lent, come to Mass.

If you want to be immersed in the Mystery of Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection this Lent, come to Mass.

If you want to be strengthened for fasting and almsgiving, come to Mass.

If you want to grow in holiness this Lent, come to Mass.

Jesus’ Sacrifice is truly and really made present at Mass. His resurrected life is poured for us there. So, if you want to make this the best Lent ever, come to Mass!  Jesus is really present there and is waiting for you!

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh