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Lent: Along the Way

Lent isn't the same as it used to be. Before Vatican II it seemed long and demanding. It involved our whole lives: what we ate every day, what we did socially; church seemed a long time draped in purple. The daily Mass population grew. Stations of the Cross were the devotion of choice in parishes across the county, sometimes even several times a week, both for adults and for children.

Life with the ordinary faithful was a glimpse of what life in the friary was. Lent changed everything from the color of the vestments, the prayers of the Divine Office, what we read in spiritual reading, the community grace in the refectory, and not least of all, the menu of the community food allowed us to suffer through lots of fish.

What happened to our Lent? What happened to the satisfaction of enduring this genuinely penitential season? Some mark it up to the "softening" of life discipline within the Roman Catholic Church. Others tell us that people are just less religious. Still others tell us that all we're left with are the six Sundays of Lent.

Perception and Attitude
Thanks to the renewed theology of the Second Vatican Council, with its newly discovered emphasis on the Scriptures and the Sacraments, we began to perceive our spiritual life in a different way. Our attitude about religion and God took on a more community sense. In one sense our faith life became less focused on self. Rooted in a scriptural and liturgical attitude, we became aware that we could find God best in his action in the community.

Liturgical and scriptural renewal went hand in hand. Always God acted in the community and its members found new life in their annual festivals of repentance, covenant, and a rediscovery and renewal of life in God among them. Notions like remembering and giving thanks in community opened up the scriptures for us and with the scriptures a more inclusive notion of how God shows himself to us.

We began to read the scriptures and hear the stories of Abraham, Moses, the prophets inviting a change of heart. Catholics began to experience and appreciate Passover, Exodus, a journey with God to a place where his promises were fulfilled. In retelling these

stories within our liturgies we began to remember those actions of God as a movement of God within our lives.

Initiation and Triduum
We began to journey with catechumens, learning with them about passing through baptismal water in Christ, dying to self, only to rise with Christ to new life. This re-experience of this Easter Mystery, death to life in Christ, our spiritual life became more integrated. This death to life was known in Sunday worship, in a baptismal understanding of the sacraments. What we discovered was that death to life in Christ was not confined to Lent, but was our very life as disciples.

Lent with its readings and with our journeying with those chosen for Initiation has become our growing experience of an integrated life in Christ. We continue to learn that our faith life involved the community of believers, where we hear their life stories and the stories of the action of God in the lives of his people. These stories are enacted in the telling of God's Word and experiencing them in the liturgical actions of the Church.

The Triduum, with the Church's rituals of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, has been renewed and made available for the faith life of God's People. The telling of the saving deeds of God happened on these holy days allowing us to enter more deeply into the Christ mystery. The Triduum with its scriptures, symbols, and the journey of those chosen for Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist has enriched our Lenten Sundays.

Religious More or Less?
In looking at Lent, have we become more or less religious in our outlook? Current secular research reports that people are more "religious," but less institutional. Indeed, the Church as institution has its share of problems, but our tradition of scripture and sacraments tells us that God happens when we come together as the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is not invisible, but alive, tangible, and real in the worship and prayer life of God's People.

Our Lenten readings tell us time and time again that God acts in his People. It is in the community that we hear God's Word of Promise. It is there in the sacraments where we encounter the Christ and he walks with us from death to life.

CDH