With the arrival of the Fifth Sunday of Lent, our Lenten journey is almost over. The concept of Lent as a journey, rather than a time of denial, has been frequently suggested and promoted by Pope Francis.
We are over halfway in our Lenten journey now, this precious season of reflection and preparation before we once again enter into the passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord during Holy Week and Easter.
In this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis entitled his Lenten Message, “Let Us Journey Together in Hope” and no doubt this prayer sustained him during his recent serious health crisis, as millions around the world joined their Lenten prayer journey to his sufferings.
A few years ago a friend of mine, a fellow priest, shared this story with me: He and his brother were the joint heirs to their father’s estate. Several months before their father died, he called his son, the priest, saying he wanted to talk about something very important.
Suffering and tragedy are things that we don’t want to reflect on or think too much about because of the pain that it brings into our lives.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, to spend forty days and nights in prayer and fasting. The Holy Spirit not only led Jesus into temptation but also gave Him the sustaining power to overcome the temptations.
As this edition of ‘In the Word’ goes out, we are preparing to enter the Season of Lent next week. Once again, it feels like were just enjoying the Christmas season, and here we are already preparing for Easter.
The Church’s liturgical seasons are a real gift to us, helping us to enter into and make present the key events in the life of Christ, which happened more than 2000 years ago, but still bring fresh meaning to our lives today.
Most of us when we were children may have tried to figure out what would happen if we put a seed in a glass of water. At first, it seems nothing is happening, then maybe after a few days, the outer shell of the seed begins to crack, then slowly a little green sprout springs out of the seed until a little bud form and a green leaf slowly unravels.
There is some reassuring and challenging teaching presented to us in the readings of today’s liturgy!
In his Lenten Message for 2024, Pope Francis recalls that Lent "is a season of conversion, a time of freedom" because "God does not want subjects, but sons and daughters" and, citing the Book of Exodus, he emphasises that the Word of God addresses each one of us personally today: "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery".
Along these lines, the Holy Father emphasises that "it is time to act, and in Lent to act also means to pause, to pause in prayer, in order to receive the word of God, to pause like the Samaritan in the presence of a wounded brother or sister" because "love of God and love of neighbour are one love".
Lent really crept up on us this year, didn’t it? It felt like we were no sooner waving a wistful farewell to the Christmas season when Ash Wednesday was upon us.
Now, we are well and truly in the midst of our Lenten journey – a journey that will take us all the way to Calvary and then, to the glory of Easter.
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