Each issue carries an imprimatur from
the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Reprinting prohibited
Baptism Is the Key
The key to understanding the meaning of Lent is simple: Baptism. Preparation
for Baptism and for renewing baptismal commitment lies at the heart of the season. Since
the Second Vatican Council, the Church has reemphasized the baptismal character of Lent,
especially through the restoration of the Catechumenate and its Lenten rituals. Our challenge
today is to renew our understanding of this important season of the Church year and to
see how we can integrate our personal practices into this renewed perspective.
Why is Baptism so important in our Lenten understanding? Lent as a 40-day
season developed in the fourth century from three merging sources. The first was the
ancient paschal fast that began as a two-day observance before Easter but was gradually
lengthened to 40 days. The second was the catechumenate as a process of preparation for
Baptism, including an intense period of preparation for the Sacraments of Initiation
to be celebrated at Easter. The third was the Order of Penitents, which was modeled on
the catechumenate and sought a second conversion for those who had fallen back into serious
sin after Baptism. As the catechumens (candidates for Baptism) entered their final period
of preparation for Baptism, the penitents and the rest of the community accompanied them
on their journey and prepared to renew their baptismal vows at Easter.
Lent, then, is radically baptismal. In this Update we'll consider
some of the familiar customs of Lent and show how we can renew some of our Lenten customs
to bring forth the baptismal theme.
Ash Wednesday liturgies are some of the best attended in the entire year.
Some people suggest that is just because the Church is giving out something free, but
I suspect there are deeper reasons! Ashes are an ancient symbol of repentance (sackcloth
and ashes). They also remind us of our mortality ("remember that you are dust") and thus
of the day when we will stand before God and be judged. This can be linked easily to
the death and resurrection motif of Baptism. To prepare well for the day we die, we must
die now to sin and rise to new life in Christ. Being marked with ashes at the beginning
of Lent indicates our recognition of the need for deeper conversion of our lives during
this season of renewal.
Giving something up
For most older Catholics, the first thought that Lent brings to mind is
giving something up. In my childhood, the standard was to give up candy, a discipline
that found suitable reward in the baskets of sugary treats we received on Easter. Some
of us even added to the Easter surplus by saving candy all through Lent, stockpiling
what we would have eaten had we not promised to give it up.
Some years ago a friend of mine told me that he had urged his children
to move beyond giving up candy to giving up some habit of sin that marked their lives.
About halfway through Lent he asked the children how they were doing with their Lenten
promise. One of his young sons had promised to give up fighting with his brothers and
sisters during Lent. When his father asked him how it was going, the boy replied, "I'm
doing pretty good, Dadbut boy, I can't wait until Easter!"
That response indicates that this boy had only partly understood the purpose
of Lenten "giving up." Lent is about conversion, turning our lives more completely over
to Christ and his way of life. That always involves giving up sin in some form. The goal
is not just to abstain from sin for the duration of Lent but to root sin out of our lives
forever. Conversion means leaving behind an old way of living and acting in order to
embrace new life in Christ. For catechumens, Lent is a period intended to bring their
initial conversion to completion.
Scrutinies: Examining our lives
The primary way that the Church assists the catechumens (called the elect
after the celebration of the Rite of Election on the First Sunday of Lent) in this conversion
process during Lent is through the celebration of the rites called Scrutinies. These
ritual celebrations on the Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Lent are communal prayers
celebrated around the elect to strengthen them to overcome the power of sin in their
lives and to grow in virtue. To scrutinize something means to examine it closely. The
community does not scrutinize the catechumens; the catechumens scrutinize their own lives
and allow God to scrutinize them and to heal them.
There is a danger in celebrating the Scrutinies if the community thinks
of the elect as the only sinners in our midst who need conversion. All of us are called
to continuing conversion throughout our lives, so we join with the elect in scrutinizing
our own lives and praying to God for the grace to overcome the power of sin that still
infects our hearts.
Many parishes today seek to surface the concrete issues that the elect
need to confront; these issues then become the focus of the intercessions during the
Scrutinies. Some parishes extend this discernment process to the wider community so that
all are called to name the ways that evil continues to prevent them from living the gospel
fully. Even if the parish does not do this in an organized way, every Catholic should
spend some time reflecting on what obstacles to gospel living exist in his or her own
life. Then when the Scrutinies are celebrated, we will all know that the prayers are
for us as well as for the elect.
Taking seriously this dynamic of scrutiny and conversion gives us a richer
perspective on Lenten "giving up." What we are to give up more than anything else is
sin, which is to say we are to give up whatever keeps us from living out our baptismal
promises fully. Along with the elect we all need to approach the season of Lent asking
ourselves what needs to change in our lives if we are to live the gospel values that
Jesus taught us. Our journey through these forty days should be a movement ever closer
to Christ and to the way of life he has exemplified for us.
Scrutinies and Penance
The elect deal with sin through the Scrutinies and through the waters of
the font; the already baptized deal with sin through the Sacrament of Penance. The same
kind of reflection that enables all members of the community to share in the Scrutinies
can lead the baptized to celebrate this Sacrament of Reconciliation to renew their baptismal
Lent is the primary time for celebrating the Sacrament of Penance, because
Lent is the season for baptismal preparation and baptismal renewal. Early Christian teachers
called this sacrament "second Baptism," because it is intended to enable us to start again to live the baptismal
life in its fullness. Those who experience the loving mercy of God in the Sacrament of
Reconciliation should find themselves standing alongside the newly baptized at Easter
filled with great joy at the new life God has given all of us.
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving
The three traditional pillars of Lenten observance are prayer, fasting
and almsgiving. The key to renewed appropriation of these practices is to see their link
to baptismal renewal.
Prayer: More time given to prayer during Lent should
draw us closer to the Lord. We might pray especially for the grace to live out our baptismal
promises more fully. We might pray for the elect who will be baptized at Easter and support
their conversion journey by our prayer. We might pray for all those who will celebrate
the sacrament of reconciliation with us during Lent that they will be truly renewed in
their baptismal commitment.
Fasting: Fasting is one of the most ancient practices linked
to Lent. In fact, the paschal fast predates Lent as we know it. The early Church fasted
intensely for two days before the celebration of the Easter Vigil. This fast was later
extended and became a 40-day period of fasting leading up to Easter. Vatican II called
us to renew the observance of the ancient paschal fast: "...let the paschal fast
be kept sacred. Let it be celebrated everywhere on Good Friday and, where possible, prolonged
throughout Holy Saturday, so that the joys of the Sunday of the Resurrection may be attained
with uplifted and clear mind"
(Liturgy, # 110).
Fasting is more than a means of developing self-control. It is often an
aid to prayer, as the pangs of hunger remind us of our hunger for God. The first reading
on the Friday after Ash Wednesday points out another important dimension of fasting.
The prophet Isaiah insists that fasting without changing our behavior is not pleasing
to God. "This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing
your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked
when you see them, and not turning your back on your own" (Is 58:6-7).
Fasting should be linked to our concern for those who are forced to fast
by their poverty, those who suffer from the injustices of our economic and political
structures, those who are in need for any reason. Thus fasting, too, is linked to living
out our baptismal promises. By our Baptism, we are charged with the responsibility of
showing Christ's love to the world, especially to those in need. Fasting can help us
realize the suffering that so many people in our world experience every day, and it should
lead us to greater efforts to alleviate that suffering.
Abstaining from meat traditionally also linked us to the poor, who could
seldom afford meat for their meals. It can do the same today if we remember the purpose
of abstinence and embrace it as a spiritual link to those whose diets are sparse and
simple. That should be the goal we set for ourselvesa sparse and simple meal. Avoiding
meat while eating lobster misses the whole point!
Almsgiving: It should be obvious at this point that almsgiving,
the third traditional pillar, is linked to our baptismal commitment in the same way.
It is a sign of our care for those in need and an expression of our gratitude for all
that God has given to us. Works of charity and the promotion of justice are integral
elements of the Christian way of life we began when we were baptized.
Stations of the Cross
While this devotion certainly has a place in Lent, the overemphasis given
to it in the past tended to distort the meaning of the season. Because the stations were
prayed publicly throughout the whole season, the impression was given that Lent was primarily
about commemorating the passion and death of Christ.
Vatican II strongly endorsed the use of devotions as part of Catholic spirituality,
but it also called for their renewal, to harmonize them with the sacred liturgy (see Liturgy #13).
The liturgy of Lent focuses on the passion and death of the Lord only near the end of
the season, especially with the proclamation of the Passion on Palm (Passion) Sunday
and again on Good Friday. The weekday readings between the Fifth Sunday of Lent and Palm
Sunday also point toward the coming Passion, so that might also be an appropriate time
to pray the Stations. The earlier weeks of Lent, however, focus much more on Baptism
and covenant than on the Passion.
When we do pray the Stations of the Cross, we can also connect them with
the baptismal character of Lent if we place the stations themselves in the context of
the whole paschal mystery. In Baptism we are plunged into the mystery of Christ's death
and resurrection, and our baptismal commitment includes a willingness to give our life
for others as Jesus did. Recalling his passion and death can remind us that we, too,
may be called to suffer in order to be faithful to the call of God.
One limitation with the traditional form of the Stations is the absence
of the second half of the paschal mystery. The liturgy never focuses on the death of
Christ without recalling his resurrection. Some forms of the Stations of the Cross include
a 15th station to recall the resurrection as an integral part of the paschal mystery.
Some contemporary forms of the Stations also make clear the link between
the sufferings of Christ in the first century and the sufferings of Christ's body in
the world today. Such an approach can help us to recognize and admit the ways that we
have failed to live up to our baptismal mission to spread the gospel and manifest the
love of Christ to those in need.
As we near the end of Lent, we celebrate Passion (Palm) Sunday. At the
beginning of the liturgy, we receive palms in memory of Christ's triumphal entry into
Jerusalem. As a symbol of triumph, the palms point us toward Christ's resurrection and
might remind us of the saints in heaven "wearing white robes and holding palm branches
in their hands" (Rev 7:9). The white robes remind us of baptismal garments, and
the palms suggest their triumph over sin and death through the waters of Baptism.
Next: God's Banquet of Love (Richard Rohr, O.F.M.)