You Should Do Lent the Way Jesus Says
Ash Wednesday
There are a few ways in which the season of Lent brings out the worst in some Catholics, and as someone who has as an occupational hazard having to spend a lot of time around Catholics, I don’t always find myself looking forward to the season of Lent. But as I think about those ways, I can see how I’m also part of the problem—which is to say, it’s good for all of us on Ash Wednesday to center our bearings as this ‘campaign of Christian service’ gets underway.
During Lent the Church exhorts us to do three things: pray, fast, give alms. What some Catholics get wrong about them is that they are ends in themselves, not means to something else. You pray because it is good to pray. You fast because it is good to fast. You give alms because it is good to give alms. You don’t pray because so that you appear more holy. You don’t fast to look miserable and impose guilt upon the rest of the world enjoying life. You don’t give alms to claim a tax write-off. Can these things have other effects which are also good? Certainly. Praying can make you holier. Fasting can be a sign of witness to the world. Almsgiving can both feed the poor and deprive some part of the governmental-bureaucratic machine of funding. The point is to scrutinize and, if necessary, purify our motivations so that we don’t pray, fast, and give alms to be better than anyone but for the simple fact that these practices are good, and they are what the Church asks us to do.
And this is what Christ asks us to do, in the Gospel the Church gives us at the beginning of Lent. “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them.” “When you pray… go to your inner room.” “When you fast, do not look gloomy.” This is the way that pushes us toward the heights of holiness: to do everything with the singleness of mind that what we do in secret is seen by our Father who sees in secret. This is not easy, for all of us make decisions about things great and small out of a complexity of motivations. That is why we have Lent each year: to give us another chance at trying again to hone our determination to be on Christ alone.
Lent ought to be the season where Catholics become better Catholics, for it is in this season alone that the Church prescribes a programmatic way of living and encourages us to analyze the thinking that stands behind it. In whatever we do during these 40 days, let us do all for Christ, on whose behalf we are reconciled to God.
Homily preached February 14, 2024 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen and St. Thomas Aquinas, Hampden