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Don't take Lent for granted
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WE are now in the middle of Lent. For those who, by choice
or circumstance, do not know anymore what Lent is, it is that
liturgical season when Christian believers prepare for the
greatest feast of the Christian faith.
The expected preparation is one of intense prayers and purification,
involving fasting and abstinence, almsgiving and other works
of mercy. It has a regimen that demands both spiritual and
bodily discipline.
The idea is to make one fit to receive the tremendous grace
our Lord pours with his passion, death and resurrection on
Good Friday and Easter Sunday. This is the paschal mystery
that culminates and summarizes Christ's redemptive work.
Lent is not supposed to be considered as one more period of
the year with more or less some peculiar traits, but is really
no different from other parts of the year. Such attitude exposes
a believer to be actually a pagan.
Lent is meant to be a very good moment for conversion. It
is meant to attain another transformation for both individuals
and our society. Only the stubbornly self-righteous believe
there is no such need.
This is specially so these days when sins and abuses in the
different fields of our life are very evident. In business
and politics, in the world of fashion and entertainment, even
in family life, inhuman conditions are developing.
Scams and scandals abound, deception and greed now appear
to be normal. In politics even the blind and deaf can detect
the ugly shenanigans of politicians and ideologues deprived
even of the most indispensable common sense.
The Catholic Church has issued and extensively developed
the gospel-inspired social doctrine to guide us in our social
life. But who's studying it? Who's trying to put this doctrine
into practice?
Even high ecclesiastics violate it with impunity, making
stupid comments dripping with hatred not only to their ilk
but also to the public. Are we surprised why there's so much
moral disorder around? These ecclesiastics have to be rehabilitated.
The so-called heroes and heroines of the past are now showing
their feet of clay, doing political antics that betray more
their attachment to their personal, family or class interests
than their service for the common good.
There is so much commercialism and materialism around, continually
fed and reinforced by the media. Not only goods are advertised.
Even persons, as in stars and starlets, male and female, are
shamelessly sold and traded and treated like commodities.
For this purpose, these unfortunate men and women are made
to wallow in very inhuman conditions, though these may be
sweetened by the false values of vanity, fame and some measure
of wealth, which is not really much in the first place.
Look at those large TV networks that together with legitimate
news peddle rumors and gossips, trying their best to improve
their ratings at the expense of destroying consciences, theirs
and others'.
The people are evangelized with the gospel of purely earthly
and temporal values. A dangerous culture is being formed,
posing an increasing spiritual and moral threat similar to
the Southern Leyte disaster in the physical side.
The importance of prayer, of sacrifice and mortification,
the need for humility and ascetical struggle, the pursuit
of the common good are shut out.
The strengthening of the faith, feeding it with appropriate
doctrine and virtues, is ignored and neglected.
Let's not take Lent for granted. We have this yearly opportunity
to cleanse and purify ourselves, regain our true bearings,
and strengthen our life from within and then to the other
aspects.
Let's go back to God. Let's have another conversion. At least,
we can expect the return of common sense and sanity to our
life with these actions. But a lot more can be expected, because
God is good, and very eager to forgive us.
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