Bishop Douglas J. Lucia
The Catholic Sun bi-weekly column (2-15-2024)
“Through the Desert God Leads us to Freedom.” This is the theme of the message of His Holiness Pope Francis for Lent 2024. The Holy Father writes: “Lent is the season of grace in which the desert can become once more – in the words of the prophet Hosea – the place of our first love (cf. Hos 2:16-17). God shapes his people, he enables us to leave our slavery behind and experience a Passover from death to life. Like a bridegroom, the Lord draws us once more to himself, whispering words of love to our hearts.”
He goes on to say: “God has not grown weary of us. Let us welcome Lent as the great season in which he reminds us: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’ (Ex 20:2). Lent is a season of conversion, a time of freedom.”
The Pope’s Lenten Message touches upon some of my recent spiritual reading. Over the course of the last couple of weeks I have been reading Fr. Jacques Philippe’s, Trusting God in the Present (Frederick, MD: The Word Among us Press, 2022). In the Preface, Fr. Philippe writes:
“It’s not easy to love in this time of uncertainty and instability. We can be tempted to fear, to make hasty speculations about the future, or to close ourselves in within circles of like-minded people, or to be satisfied with a self-centered individualism that only seeks to get the most out of life. These difficult times can, however, become times of grace. First, they can push us to make a stronger commitment to God who is the only stable reality on whom we can rely. Faith that is just a cultural or social habit is no longer enough today; we need a faith that is a radical personal decision for God that will allow us to discover the light and the strength we need to face the challenges of today.”
Is this not what the journey into the Lenten desert, of which Pope Francis speaks, is all about? In fact, as if to the confirm the purpose of our Lenten observances, Fr. Philippe states in the same Preface: “This decision for God must be expressed by a renewed commitment to prayer, by our faithfulness to ecclesial communion, and by our determination to live, not according to the wisdom of the world, but according to the wisdom of the gospel.”
Both Pope Francis and Fr. Philippe are inviting us to the ultimate goal for the questions we face in life – to personal conversion and to progress in love. In their writings, both clerics invite us to reject the blame game and the accusatory language that pervades our world today, and instead to embrace one’s responsibility for the good one can do. It is in this moment then that you and I will find our freedom as sons and daughters of God.
This idea reminds of a time many years ago now when I accompanied Bishop Paul Loverde, then Bishop of Ogdensburg, to a pastoral visitation of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY. It was my one and only time behind the walls and fences of that penitentiary, but I have to confess that to this day it was one of the most meaningful Masses of my life. Not only because of the reverential, but spirited liturgy that was celebrated. Even more, because I can still hear Bishop Loverde tell those incarcerated that true freedom can always be found in their lives in their relationship with Jesus Christ!
In our world today, there are many who may feel confined without being in a jail cell. Maybe we feel trapped by life’s circumstances – unemployed, underpaid, housing shortage, illness, aging, or situations we have brought on ourselves because of the use of drugs, alcohol, or pornography. No matter! In these desert moments, echoing words of the hymn often sung in our churches by the composer Marty Haugen, “Gather Us In,” the season of Lent announces: “Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some Heaven light years away, but here in this place the new Light is shining, now is the Kingdom, now is the Day.”
This Lent 2024, our diocesan family is invited to use the theme of “Awaken in Us” for both our prayer and reflection. During the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday, the minister is invited to say to those who approach for this sacramental: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Either formula is meant to awaken in us the idea that when you and I enter the Lenten desert with prayer, fasting, and charitable works – it is in this place that God wants to breath new life into us and fashion us anew as God’s beloved sons and daughters – casting off the darkness of sin and enjoying the new found freedom our renewed relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit brings!
On this desert journey, two important wellsprings will be the Sacraments of Penance and of the Holy Eucharist. These important rest stops on our Lenten pilgrimage are highlighted by what the Church refers to as the “Easter Duty” which begins on the First Sunday of Lent (February 18th) and concludes on Trinity Sunday (May 26th). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “The Church obliges the faithful to take part in the Divine Liturgy on Sundays and feast days and, prepared by the sacrament of Reconciliation, to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, if possible during the Easter season. But the Church strongly encourages the faithful to receive the holy Eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even daily” (#1389).
Certainly, during this Lenten season, I invite all of us to a renewed encounter with these important Sacraments and the grace of freedom they bring us. In fact, the US Bishops invite us during this particular Lent, in this time of Eucharistic Revival, to focus ever more on our relationship with our Eucharistic Lord and the new covenant He inaugurates through his living, dying, and rising. As noted in the introductory notes to its “Preaching Guide”: “From the moment our first parents’ disobedience in Genesis, God’s plan of salvation moved into action. Humanity had turned away from God, losing the participation in the divine life God had bestowed on them. God’s children were now separated from him. Yet in his great love for us, the Father would make a way for us to have a new, greater relationship with him through his Son, Jesus.”
This Lent 2024, I invite us all to use the final verse of Marty Haugen’s previously mentioned song as our own prayer of awakening: “Gather us in and hold us forever, Gather us in and make us your own; Gather us in all peoples together, Fire of Love in our flesh and our bones.” May your Lent be a blessed and awakening one!
