LENT
Leaders urge Catholics to move beyond a ‘cultural’ Lent

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
February 15, 2007

Throughout its history, the Church has recognized humanity’s need for ritual and tradition. Nowhere is this clearer than in the season of Lent, with its meatless Fridays, Ash Wednesday and Stations of the Cross.

These practices and devotions have theological, liturgical and historical significance. Unfortunately, said Fr. Robert Clements, rector of Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral, many people are content to stay at a surface level.

“I know people who when they think of ‘Catholic,’ they think of Lent and ‘Late Night Catechism,’ and all Catholics are Irish and every priest has a brogue,” he said.

“Well, no,” he went on. “But Lent can kind of fall into that.”

Fr. Clements said many people  subscribe to a notion of the faith that is little more than “cultural Catholicism.”

This notion is especially common during Lent — which begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 21 — when Catholics give up sweets without really knowing why, or avoid hamburgers on Fridays if they remember. This approach, Fr. Clements warned, does not allow the season its fullness or purpose.

So what is the purpose of Lent?

Renewing baptismal promises

Easter Sunday sees Catholics celebrating the resurrection of Christ and renewing their baptismal vows. It’s only in this light that Catholics can grasp the full meaning of Lent, Fr. Clements said.

“The 40 days of Lent are meant as a preparatory and examination time so as to make such promises in integrity,” he said.

This is why Catholics must strive to reach beyond a cultural understanding of Lent, Fr. Clements added. The stakes are high.

“If we’re going to act with integrity to rise with the Lord on Easter, then we must die to self as much as we can,” he said. “I think there are easy ways to do that.”

One way Fr. Clements suggested is to enter fully into the life of the Church. The Lenten season offers the faithful a wealth of liturgical and devotional practices, many of which he hopes to emphasize at the cathedral this year.

“Everybody knows the Mass. Everybody knows familiar and easy devotions,” Fr. Clements said. “Enter into the life of the Church.”

Each of the Church’s liturgical seasons emphasizes a different facet of the faith. Larry Fraher, an instructor at the Kino Institute, said that the Masses during Lent are primed to foster the kind of self-examination that will prepare one for the Paschal mysteries.

“Certainly if you go through the Lenten readings, they’re very introspective,” Fraher said. “They’re very much focused on who we are and what we’re called to do as Christians.”

He said that Lent has been described as the “40-day retreat of the Church.” The season still functions that way for the catechumens who prepare to enter the Church on Easter.

Fraher suggested that Catholics try to place themselves in the shoes of those catechumens and imagine their goal at the end of the 40 days.

“This is the time of election. We prepare with the catechumens as they journey toward baptism,” he said. “We’re reminded of the need for our own purification as we journey toward that same experience of being immersed in the death and resurrection of Christ.”

In addition to Mass, the cathedral will offer other liturgies and devotions to help propel parishioners on their journey to Calvary.

On Wednesdays the cathedral choir will chant Vespers, the evening prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours, Fr. Clements said. Fridays will have Stations of the Cross, and the parish will offer more times throughout the week for confessions.

Prayer, self-denial, almsgiving

Ss. Simon and Jude isn’t the only parish offering ways for the faithful to deepen their spiritual life. Priests across the diocese will be celebrating extra Masses, leading their parishioners in the Stations and preaching at parish missions.

“We try to focus people on the three traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving,” said Fr. Thaddeus McGuire, pastor of St. Daniel the Prophet in Scottsdale.

“We try to provide opportunities for people to engage in those three areas in a special, concerted and prayerful way,” he said.

To foster prayer, the parish will be giving away books of daily reflections. There will be an additional Mass each day and ongoing faith formation programs.

To encourage almsgiving and charitable acts, the parish promotes Operation Rice Bowl, a program that fosters solidarity with the poor and hungry through prayer, fasting, donations and education.

“We use this for families,” Fr. McGuire said. “It provides them with an opportunity to form their children in the area of almsgiving from an early age. And the children really connect to it.”

More than anything else, the greatest hindrance to a fruitful Lent is lack of planning, he said.

“Come up with your Lenten game plan. If we don’t have something specific to hold ourselves to, it’s amazing how those 40 days of Lent will pass by and we find ourselves at Holy Week not having done anything,” he said.

But if they stick to their game plan, the potential for spiritual growth is great.

And spiritual growth should always be the goal of Lent, Fr. Clements said.

“The Christian life is always more about growing in virtue and doing good than it is about avoiding sin and evil. Dispose yourself to God and all His grace,” he said.