“Why can’t we eat meat today, mom?” a little boy asked. “Because it is Lent Season and it is Friday,” answered the mother. She adds: “You should be thankful because nowadays it is much easier than it was years ago”. Lent is a beautiful time within the liturgical calendar. It is a time when we, as the Universal Church, reflect on many things: The things Jesus did for us during Easter, the meaning of our baptism, and the consequences of sin in our lives and the whole world. Lent Season is very special and it is a penitence time. This means that Lent is a time to reflect on the fact that we are sinners, be aware of our faults and accept that we cannot be proud of being sinners if we proclaim that we are Jesus’ followers. That is why we have a repentant heart, we regret what we did (sinned) or what we did not do (live sanctity and charity life). Our sorrow and grief are expressed through acts of penitence such as fasting, charity works, abstaining from pleasures or things that are important to us but that are not essential to live our Christian faith. It breaks my heart that so many people agree with my mother words, “let’s be thankful because nowadays it is much easier than it was years ago”.
There are places where culture has relaxed our mind so that we believe that our sins do not hurt anybody, not us and not the people around us. But fasting and making a commitment with charity help us to realize more clearly the power of sin, and even more, the supreme power of grace, forgiveness and sanctity.
I had the privilege of studying with men from the Bizntine Church at the seminar. During Lent Season, they fast including every kind of meat and every other animal product: meat, chicken, eggs, milk, cheese and all their byproducts are proscribed (just as we Catholics did before). Lent Season is a real sacrifice for them. When we were at the table with them and our dishes were full of every kind of food (because we only abstain from eating meat on Fridays while they abstain from eating all the other things we have mentioned before, every day during Lent Season) we realized that they were living Lent in a different way. They felt the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice in a way we only can imagine or pretend that we understand. We sat and watch the way they experienced Lent. But when Easter Season arrived, believe me, they really celebrated! They celebrated with a new meaning and strength the great “celebration” of Easter Season. So let us feel the challenge Church is proposing today, specially our Catholic family, in order to live this season deeper and more seriously. It is fine that we make sacrifices for Jesus, didn’t He make the greatest and supreme sacrifice for us? Let us not be afraid to look different from the rest of the people if we make penitence for our sins, which are so beautifully reconciled with God during Easter Season, when we make an effort to live charity and sanctity in our lives.
