What is the Real Essence of Lent?

A profound question that should prepare each person to seek the confessional, not only in church but in their individual heart.  The most prolific answer is when we circumcise the things that might keep us away from God’s endless mercy. 

One of the intriguing phenomena is when we find our confession is the same sin that is very difficult to avoid.  “Do I keep coming to be reconciled when I know that try as I might, I may fall under the same grip of temptation?  What happens when I repeatedly fall to the same sin, and am ashamed over and over?  Does God shake his head wondering why I can not avoid this after each; “I Absolve you from your sins”?  Of course not!  “then Peter approached Jesus with the question, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?  As many as seven times?  Jesus answered, I say to you not seven times but seventy times seven times.”  (Mt. 18: 21). 

Do we wonder, was his sin different each time?  A recent article June 2017, I wrote “Rejecting God when we sin” wherein the temptation to avoid prayer or attending Mass until we confess because our shame has overtaken our need to reach out to a forgiving Lord.  Never neglect to get on your knees and ask immediate forgiveness first, then get to the confessional and receive Sanctifying Grace through the richest and too often neglected sacrament.  We can never wait to seek his love and mercy while waiting to confess.  Sin!  Call on God!

Catholics should be thankful for so many things in our Church.  But most of all the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  In the Eucharist we share the Body and Blood of Christ, daily if we attend.  Through reconciliation we meet our Forgiving Savior and feel his very presence like the woman caught in adultery.  “Has anyone condemned you?  None sir.  Then neither do I!”

 During Lent, pray more rosaries, walk the stations of the cross, get to Mass more than on Sundays, read inspiring works of faith.  But find time to go to Christ in the confessional, talk to him as his child and allow him to forgive you seventy times seven times.

Ralph B. Hathaway, Lent 2020