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The
joy of the Lenten season
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
Joy is one of the fruits of Lent. Prefaces used for weekday Masses
highlight four different aspects of the Lenten season: its spiritual
meaning; penance; the fruits of self-denial; and the reward of fasting.
Lent has long been part of Catholic life. We are called to channel our
energies into prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Sacramental confession is
also in there. And, if we take it seriously, even though the tone is
penitential (ashes, purple vestments and penance), it generates joy.
The first Lenten weekday Preface reminds us that each year the Church
gives us “this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal
mystery with mind and heart renewed.” The Catechism of the Catholic
Church explains that the paschal mystery is “Christ’s work of
redemption accomplished principally by his passion, death, resurrection
and glorious ascension, whereby ‘dying he destroyed our death, rising he
restored our life.’”
The basic theme of the Lenten season is taken from psalm 51: Create
in me a clean heart, O God.
Whatever we choose to do in the way of Lenten practices, the intent is
to generate a clean heart within, a reorientation of our whole life away
from the selfishness that impedes our relationship with God, a turning
away from evil and toward God. This change of heart (conversion) was a
central element of Christ’s preaching. He proclaimed: “This is the time
of fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand. Reform your lives and
believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).
The roots of Lent have only recently been rediscovered. When I was a
teen-ager, a great deal of emphasis was placed on the fact we are dust
and to dust we will return. In taking ashes at the beginning of Lent, a
person acknowledged that he/she was a sinner and committed
himself/herself to 40 days of penance. Although egocentric (my
relationship with God, my sinfulness, my need to do penance), that was
good and continues to be so. That notwithstanding, it was the
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council that
brought better understanding that the Lenten season has a two-fold
communal character. First of all, it focuses on baptism and, secondly,
it is penitential.
It is at Easter, the Easter Vigil to be precise, that unbaptized adults
are brought into the Church and it is at Easter that the members of the
Church are called upon to renew their baptismal promises.
The challenge both for those who are preparing for baptism and those who
have been Catholics for years is conversion, a change of heart and
mind, which expresses itself in external acts of repentance. The
shift in emphasis is significant. Lent prepares catechumens for the
sacraments of initiation. It prepares the rest of us for a renewed
commitment to the Church (the body of Christ) embraced in the reception
of those sacraments. It calls each one of us to conversion. It prepares
the faith community for Easter.
The rationale behind fasting, abstinence, increased focus on prayer and
almsgiving is to establish control over self so conversion can be
experienced. It was St. Ignatius who suggested the goal is to reject the
standard of Satan and accept the standard of Christ.
In recent years, a ceremony held at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the
Immaculate Conception on the first Sunday of Lent has become a major
Lenten event. It is the Rite of Election. Its focus is on unbaptized
folks seeking membership in the Church. It is a celebration of the
Catholic faith community of Northcentral Indiana. A second ceremony on
the following Sunday is directed to non-Catholics who have been baptized
and who now wish to become Catholic. These folks, identified as
candidates for confirmation and first Communion, enrich the Church. They
are highly valued. The focus of this column, however, is on catechumens,
the unbaptized and the Rite of Election. Some of what follows applies to
“candidates” as well as to catechumens.
Most know that the normative way for unbaptized adults to become
Catholic is the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Those
rites aim to bring the person’s conversion and their faith to maturity
within the Church community. There are anointings and exorcisms.
Preparation includes reflection on the doctrines and discipline of the
Church as well as lived experience of the Catholic community. This
period of preparation (the timeline can vary) is termed the catchumenate.
It comes to a close on the first Sunday of Lent with the celebration of
election. To be enrolled among the elect, a person must have
enlightened faith and a deliberate intention of receiving the sacraments
of the Church. And, the Church must select (call) them. Jesus says: “It
was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you to go forth and bear
fruit” (Jn. 15:16). The bishop, as shepherd of the Diocesan Church, is
the one who calls catechumens to the sacraments of initiation. It is the
bishop who announces the Church’s decision that those presented at the
Rite of Election may receive baptism, the sacrament of confirmation and
first Communion.
The cathedral was packed on the first Sunday of Lent. Godparents
testified that each catechumen presented has faithfully listened to
God’s word proclaimed by the Church and has responded to that word and
begun to welcome God’s presence.
Those who accompanied the catechumens to the cathedral (representing the
Catholics of Northcentral Indiana) were asked if they were ready to
support the testimony expressed about the catechumens and include them
in their prayer as the faith community moves toward Easter.
Catechumens expressed their response to the call to conversion by
writing their names in the register of the elect, the big book. They
were then formally declared to be members of the elect, that is, those
called by the Church to be received into the Church at the Easter Vigil.
The Rite of Election, then, celebrates Catholic ecclesiology. We are not
congregational. Rather, as Catholics we are members of a Local Church
whose pastor is the diocesan bishop who presides as a successor of the
apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ.
It is powerful stuff! Joyful stuff! A true celebration of pilgrim people
living out the two-fold character of the Lenten season. |
