Every year it is the same thing: Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a new season in the Catholic Church. The Calendar of Catholic events doesn’t change. We are different persons, though. The Lenten season changes everything and strengthens the appeal of the Church in our present moment. It’s because we are different individuals that we can experience a different Lent in our lives. In a few words, Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each community, and each Christian. Above all, it is a “time of grace” (2 Cor 6:2).
The first week of this renewal season begins with Jesus going into the desert for forty days. In a similar way, we are also called to live some time in the desert without having to abandon daily activities. We thus should reflect on what Jesus did during this time and on the Lenten themes we could apply to our life. Saint Augustine made this famous appeal:
“Re-enter your heart! Where do you want to go, far from yourself? Re-enter from your wandering which has led you outside the way; return to the Lord. He is quick. First re-enter into your heart, you who have become a stranger to yourself, because of your wandering outside: you do not know yourself, and seek him who has created you! Return, return to your heart, detach yourself from your body …. Re-enter into your heart: there examine him whom you perceived as God, because the image of God is there, Christ dwells in man’s interior.” [1]
Returning to our heart is the key! The heart is the most profound metaphysical place of a person, the innermost being of every man, where each one subsists in himself in relation to God, from whom he has his origin and in whom he finds his purpose, to other men and to the whole of creation.
Thus, the heart indicates the spiritual place, where one can contemplate the person in his most profound and true reality without veils. To know the heart of a person means to have penetrated the intimacy of his Self. That is the purpose of this Lent: penetrate your heart to know more about your humanity and in so doing, be closer to God.
In order to do that, we are invited to live a life of prayer, fasting and abstinence, and almsgiving in a hidden way (cf. Matthew 6, 3; Matthew, 6:1-4). This appeal is even stronger for persons consecrated to the service of God, for those are the ones who above all are in need of a return to interiority.
This internal path is taken not to leave something, but to find Someone. The ultimate reason to go into the desert shouldn’t be to leave the noise, the world, and occupations. It should not be an intense desire to find something, but rather Someone.
Being in contact with one’s inner self is useful and is a good resource to grow personally. That happens in so many forms of non-Christian meditation and in a “desert trip” as well. Beyond that, the believer goes into the desert, goes down into his own heart, to renew his contact with God, because he knows that “Truth dwells in the interior man.”
Going down into one’s heart sometimes means facing the worst side of one’s being, but, above all, means to find grace through a personal encounter with the Creator. This is the secret of happiness and of peace in this life: to be in intimacy with the person loved. God is in love with us and he wants us to be in love with him. As a consequence, all things and all other persons are placed in the background, for there is a presence that fills everything.
Jesus awaits us in the desert: let us not leave him alone during this time!
[1] Saint Augustine, In Ioh. Ev., 18, 10 (CCL 36, p. 186).
Adapted from a homily prepared by Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap
Preacher of the Pontifical Household
Rome, on 14 March 2014
Rebeca Sobreira
