The word Lent is an ancient word for spring. The season of Lent is a time in our personal lives for new life to appear, and for old, frozen attitudes to disappear. It is a time to clear the ground, to clear away any rubbish, to do the pruning. It is a time to prepare for the great Paschal event.

Lent is six weeks. It begins with Ash Wednesday proposing us to build around this holy time on Charity (works of mercy, almsgiving), prayer and penance. This is the order proposed by Jesus in the gospel of Ash Wednesday. The season of Lent, therefore, with its rich liturgy, is being built on and around these three fundamental themes. These are basic elements of Christian life, but they are emphasized especially in the season of Lent.

Jesus went through this time of reflection that these forty days of Lent present to us. In the vast Judean desert of silence, solitude and dryness, Jesus made his final, definitive and new choices. He thought about his direction in life, his awareness of the Father, doing faithfully his Father’s will, his use of time, power and personal gifts. Mind you, it could have been a terrible temptation for Jesus throughout his earthly life to use his power according to convenience, to misuse his gifts and thus become a world hero in the eyes of men… which he never did, not even once. Jesus wanted to be neither a world hero, nor a politician; he wanted to be only a religious leader who was sent by the Father to show us the way to heaven. "God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that every one who believes in him may not die, but may have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its Saviour." (Jn 3: 16-17)

The place he chose was a dry desert, away from everything and everybody; and that too was not for a day or two, but for a long period of forty days.

The means he chose to arrive at real clarity of his convictions was intense prayer, along with frightening kinds of solitude and fasting…which during his public life made him break and give himself totally to others, to satisfy the hunger and thirst of the human heart, mind, soul and body. This he could do only because he totally belonged to his Father, unconditionally, unlimitedly, ungrudgingly. From this long retreat Jesus made, he became armed with the power of the Holy Spirit. At the same time he also became aware of the presence and the apparent power of the devil. Satan is really deceptive and false. His suggestions can never be a help in the long run. "He is the father of lies." There is neither goodness nor any truthfulness in him. He is totally evil. However, he is extremely clever to mislead people through his insidious machinations and tricks. He can come to us as an angel of light to deceive us at an opportune time, when perhaps we are tired, discouraged, hungry or weak in body, mind and soul. The devil has no shame. He continues to prey on weak souls, studying very carefully and attentively the weak points, times and places. He knows each one of us more than we know ourselves.

Imagine what he did to Jesus in the desert at the end of a forty day fast and prayer. The synoptic gospels give us the account of what satan tried to do with Jesus in the desert (Mt 4: 1-11; Mk 1: 12-13; Lk 4: 1-13) and on the Cross. (Mk 15:31-32)

Here he could not do with Jesus what he did with Eve in the garden, when she was looking at the forbidden fruit. Listen to what the book of Genesis says: "The woman saw that the tree was good to eat, pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband who was with her; and he ate it." (Gen 3: 6)

On the other hand, we see Jesus, who was severely tempted, not once but three times in one stretch of time, but without any success. It is worth noting how St. Luke puts it at the end of the three temptations, when satan utterly lost his battle fought against Jesus: "Having exhausted every way of putting him to the test, the devil left him for a while to return to him at an opportune moment." (Lk 4: 13)

In this regard the document "Vita Consecrata" exhorts us, saying: "It is also necessary to recognize and overcome certain temptations which sometimes, by diabolic deceit, present themselves under the appearance of good…" (Vita Consecrata 38: 3)

Lent is a time of more

1. SOLITUDE: the solitude of the desert in order to contemplate the disfigured face of Jesus with Mary.
2. SILENCE: "The call to holiness is accepted and can be cultivated only in the silence of adoration before the infinite transcendence of God…" (Vita Consecrata 38)
3. SELF-DENIAL: infuse into our Community and in me the spirit of prayer, self-denial and charity.
4. PEACE: make me a channel of your peace.
5. JOY: where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
6. HOPE: where there is despair let me bring hope.
7. FAITH: where there is doubt let me bring faith.
8. LOVE: where there is hatred let me bring love.
9. FORGIVENESS: where there is wrong let me bring the spirit of forgiveness.
10. PRAYER: more fervent prayer.
11. SACRIFICE: to offer more sacrifices.
12. WORKS OF MERCY: spiritual and corporal works of mercy (see R. 100).
13. FIDELITY: to one’s duties of state, duties assigned, etc.
14. PENANCE: to rediscover the value and importance of the traditional ascetical practices, such as fasting and abstinence. These practices should be carried out gently, assiduously and serenely in imitation of and solidarity with Jesus’ suffering, and in reparation for our sins and those of others and as a sign of one’s desire to identify himself with the "man of sorrows" , as an expression of his love for the suffering members of the mystical body of Jesus Christ: "I complete in my body what is lacking in the suffering of Christ." (Col 1: 24)
15. "Love one another as I have loved you…Greater love than this no man has that a man lay down his life for his friends…you are my friends if you do what I tell you." (cf. Jn 15: 13)
16. Paying more attention to the liturgical readings, based on the three themes: prayer, penance and works of mercy.
17. Following very closely and very faithfully the liturgy of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, including the Office of Readings.
18. To be more and more gentle, kind, caring and bearing the trials of life. "It is better to make mistakes in kindness than to work miracles in unkindness." (Blessed Teresa M.C.)

Let us read very meditatively the following passage several times during this holy season together with "Vita Consecrata" n° 82:

Let prayer, penance and works of mercy be one single plea to God on our behalf, one speech in our defence, a threefold united prayer in our favour." (cf. St. Peter Chrysologus’ Sermon 43. Office of Readings for Tuesday, Lent, week 3)

"The Gospel is made effective through charity, which is the Church’s glory and the sign of her faithfulness to the Lord. This is demonstrated by the whole history of the consecrated life, which can be considered a living exegesis of Jesus’ words: ‘As you did it to the one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’ (Mt. 25, 40). Many institutes, especially in modern times, were established precisely to address one or other of the needs of the poor. But even when such a purpose was not the determining factor, concern and care for the needy – expressed in prayer, assistance and hospitality – was always a normal part of every form of the consecrated life, even of the contemplative life. And how could it be otherwise, since the Christ encountered in contemplation is the same who lives and suffers in the poor? In this sense, the history of the consecrated life is rich with marvellous and sometimes ingenious examples. Saint Paulinus of Nola, after distributing his belongings to the poor in order to consecrate his life fully to God, built the cells of his monastery above a hospice for the poor. He rejoiced at the thought of this singular ‘exchange of gifts’: the poor, whom he helped, strengthened with their prayers the very ‘foundations’ of his house, wholly dedicated to the praise of God. Saint Vincent de Paul, for his part, loved to say that, when one is obliged to leave prayer to attend to a poor person in need, that prayer is not really interrupted, because ‘one leaves God to serve God’. " (Vita Consecrata 82)

Lent is a time of listening. The Word of God is given to us in abundance. Look at the texts of Lenten season, the rich parables, the choice of Gospels, the great themes of faith, conversion and turning back to a God who is already waiting and loving us. We are asked to do more than just listen in this Lenten season. We are asked to make the Word of God a judgement upon our lives.

Lent is a time for special penance and personal evaluation. We are reminded of the words of Christ that unless we do penance we shall all likewise perish: "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." (Mk 8: 34) "The ascetic practises typical of the Spiritual tradition of the Church and of the individual’s own institute have been and continue to be a powerful aid to authentic progress in holiness. Asceticism, by helping to master and correct the inclination of human nature wounded by sin, is truly indispensable if consecrated persons are to remain faithful to their own vocation and follow Jesus on the way of the Cross." (Vita Consecrata 38: 2)

• Trying to smile more tenderly and maintaining the spirit of serenity and joy.
• Serious study of the Passion of Jesus and contemplating on it.
• Never waste time idly. Let us remember the famous saying: "The idle man’s heart is the workshop of the devil". Let us not give any occasion to our adversary, the devil, who "is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour; instead let us resist him, solid in our faith." (cf. 1Pt 5: 8-9a)
• "The merit of the cross we bear does not depend on its weight but the way we bear it." (St. Francis of Sales)
• "You will catch more flies with one spoon full of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar."

"This is done by those who from morning to night submit joyfully to a rule, who strive to be attentive to their prayers, and recollected all day long, who keep silence when they feel inclined to speak, who avoid the sight of such objects as excite curiosity, who suffer without complaint the unseasonableness of the weather, who show kindness to those towards whom they feel a natural antipathy, who accept humbly and patiently the reproaches made to them, who accommodate themselves to the tastes, desires and temperaments of others, who stand contradiction without irritation....to do all this, not once in passing, but habitually, to do so not merely patiently, but joyfully - this is already heroic virtue and when later on grave circumstances present themselves, heroic action will not prove too difficult: for we shall then have the strength of the Holy Spirit Himself." (A. Tanquerey)

Wish you a Joyfilled and Holy Lent. God bless you. Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala M.C.