Missionaries of the Sacred

Should I give up chocolate for Lent?  Or maybe TV?  Or maybe I should do something more on the positive side, like daily Bible reading or trying to get along better with that annoying Jerry I have to work with.  On Ash Wednesday, as we waited in line for the priest to mark a grubby cross on our foreheads, we were no doubt thinking of how we should approach Lent this year.  And we might even have felt a bit less than enthused, like approaching a recurring obligation that has lost its impact and meaning.

For many, Lent is a time for practicing spiritual self-discipline and perhaps looking at the darker side of our lives as we prepare for our pre-Easter reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  After all, aren’t the ashes on Ash Wednesday supposed to remind us of our human nature and our sinfulness? 

Maybe this year it would be helpful to recall another tradition in the Church which sees Lent in relation to the sacrament of Baptism.  The catechumens in our RCIA programs are now coming into the final weeks before receiving Baptism and the other two sacraments of Christian Initiation at the Easter Vigil.  And on Easter Sunday, the Church will ask all of us to renew our Baptismal Promises, and the priest will sprinkle us with Easter water to remind us of our own baptismal union with Christ.

Lent prepares us to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection on Easter, and the Church has always emphasized the relation between Easter and Baptism.  In this the first of the sacraments we are united with Christ into his death to sin and his Resurrection to new life.  This is the profound symbolism of water in Baptism.  Much more than just showing a cleansing from sin, the water is a symbol of dying and rising.  Christ unites us with himself in his death and infuses us with his divine life.  Through this encounter we become sons and daughters of the Father and temples of the Holy Spirit.  We are now members of the Living Body of Christ, the Church.  As shown by the anointing with Chrism, we share in Christ’s mission of priest, prophet, and king to build the Kingdom of God.  These are the tremendous themes that give meaning and purpose to Lent as we prepare to renew our own baptismal commitment with our brothers and sisters on Easter.

Baptism calls us to a conversion which is on-going in its challenge.  Conversion, in its Scriptural meaning, is much more than setting aside certain sinful ideas and actions.  Conversion calls us to a new attitude and a new vision of ourselves and our world.  The new attitude and vision are rooted in the Risen Christ as we see ourselves sharing in Christ’s victory over sin and death and reborn in the life he breathes into us through the Spirit. 

We know the importance of the vision and image we have of ourselves and the impact it has on our actions and choices.  When we see ourselves loved by the one we love, our lives are transformed.  When a young person sees himself or herself hoping to live the career and life they dream for, the commitment to studies takes on a different meaning.  Lent is the time to renew within ourselves the image of ourselves united with Christ in the life-giving Easter union of death and Resurrection. 

On Easter Sunday we will renew our baptismal commitment.  We will both renounce sin and proclaim our Faith in the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The droplets of water will bring us back to a day when the water and Spirit made us a new creation. We will see ourselves having become one with Christ, dying to sin and rising to life.  We will see ourselves as sons and daughters of the Father, brothers and sisters of each other in Christ’s own Living Body.  We will know that he has entrusted us with the building of the Kingdom.  How can I best prepare myself for the challenge of this moment of recall and renewed commitment?  The answer will be Lent, 2010.

Fr. David Foxen, MSC

Also helpful would be to choose from the many readings available for the Easter Vigil, which speak of the pre-figurations of Baptism in the Old Testament.  As these readings move into the New Testament, we listen to Paul’s description of our baptismal sharing in Christ’s death and Resurrection (Romans 6) and the Gospel Proclamation of the Empty Tomb. 

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