We are still at the beginning of the Lent, a time where we are called to conversion. This is not a sad time, absolutely, but it is a time of recollection, of inner desert, a time to look inside ourselves, to turn to our family and to the community life.
The word “lent” comes from the old English “lencten” which means “spring”, a reference to the movement of the earth from winter solstice toward the spring equinox. However, another word used to describe this season is “quadragesima” from the Latin “40th day” before Easter. It refers to some biblical facts that are linked with the number forty, such as the great flood, the forty years that the people of God were in the desert and the forty days of Jesus’ prayer and penance. This season named “quadragesima”, days or years, means the necessary and enough time for something new and extraordinary to take place.
In this special time, to live well Lent and change the heart of stone into a heart of flesh, the first tip is to bear memory of God’s actions. Nowadays, we have mobile phones, high technologies and devices that sometimes replaces many of our daily activities or duties, but the truth is that our memory doesn’t keep up with it and we begin to drift away from our spirituality. So, it is very important to stop for a while and bear memory of where God has brought us from, where He has rescued us from and what He did for us so far.
It is interesting to notice in the Scriptures how Moses, even without a mobile phone, pictures or ipads, amid so many conflicts, always insisted with the chosen people on bearing memory of all of the deeds that the Lord did for them. Especially bearing memory of how they were set free from the hard slavery they were going through, the oppression, misery and anguish, as well as remembering all the graces poured out, which led them to a land flowing with milk and honey. It is the favorable time to do the same. Why not write that down on our notebook?
Trust is the second tip. It is worth mentioning a very profound text from Psalm 90 that leads us to this point: “Who dwells under the Most High and lives in the shadow of the Lord Almighty, says the Lord: You are my refuge and protection, are my God in whom I trust fully”. Trust that it is possible in this time of Lent to transform our attitudes, trust in a change of life, trust that to dwell in the shadow of our God is to be protected. This means that we can trust entirely and not by half as Jesus gave himself entirely for us all.
“If therefore you do confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and in your heart believe that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rm 10:9). Hence the third tip, the profession of faith.
Here, we are motivated to profess our faith truly and to declare that Jesus is the Lord of our lives, our work and our family. He is the centre of everything, the most important Person of all, which leads me to love my neighbor because He first loved me. Jesus is the Lord! It is by confessing the faith with our mouth that we will achieve salvation and by believing we will not be put to shame in so many situations that tries to take us away from the path of the beatitudes.
The fourth tip is to recognize oneself as children of God. Not just any child, but a loved one and cared by God. A son who holds the Father’s gaze, the Father who never gives up and is always careful to call and admonish their children in this Lenten season. He calls us with the invitation to conversion: “Repent!”