By Fr. Cedric Prakash, SJ –
It is Lent once again: a very Special Season for Christians throughout the world. It is a time for repentance and renewal; to rekindle our initial fervour and the intense practice of our baptismal promises. What we do in these forty days will hopefully extend into the remainder of our lives. It is a season of striving, of reaching out, of going beyond our usual routines, personal weaknesses and individual rituals and devotions; of transcending our complacency and self-centredness; to make that added special effort to get out of our comfort zones.
Here is a toolkit (consisting of ten inter-related Ss) which could help make these forty days meaningful, both individually and collectively.
Silence
Lent is a very special time of grace for all. Like Jesus we need to go into a ‘desert’; to experience the wilderness; to listen to the sound of silence. We need to open ourselves to hear the voice of the Lord talking to us through the noise of the day and calling us by name, in the stillness of the night. Many of us are afraid of silence and solitude; for many, it is a new and difficult learning from the pandemic. In silence we hear the Lord saying to us, “from the depths of my heart I love you unconditionally; I have carved you in the palm of my hand.” . Encountering the Lord is the humility we need to take off our sandals; to be unencumbered with baggage. We all need to spend quality time in prayerful silence every single day: to be alone with God.
Surrender
Mary the mother of Jesus epitomises ‘surrender’; from the moment she says “yes” at the Annunciation till the moment she caresses the lifeless body of her son, so beautifully yet painfully sculptured in Michelangelo’s immortal ‘Pieta’. Pope Francis devotes the last segment of his Apostolic Exhortation ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ to Mary saying, “On the cross, when Jesus endured in his own flesh the dramatic encounter of the sin of the world and God’s mercy, he could feel at his feet the consoling presence of his mother and his friend. At that crucial moment, before fully accomplishing the work which his Father had entrusted to him, Jesus said to Mary: “Woman, here is your son”. Then he said to his beloved friend: “Here is your mother”. These words of the dying Jesus are not chiefly the expression of his devotion and concern for his mother; rather, they are a revelatory formula which manifests the mystery of a special saving mission. Jesus left us his mother to be our mother. Only after doing so did Jesus know that “all was now finished”. At the foot of the cross, at the supreme hour of the new creation, Christ led us to Mary. He brought us to her because he did not want us to journey without a mother, and our people read in this maternal image all the mysteries of the Gospel”. He adds, “Mary was able to turn a stable into a home for Jesus, with poor swaddling clothes and an abundance of love. She is the handmaid of the Father who sings his praises. She is the friend who is ever concerned that wine not be lacking in our lives. She is the woman whose heart was pierced by a sword and who understands all our pain. As mother of all, she is a sign of hope for peoples suffering the birth pangs of justice”. Lent is time for us to reflect on our own ‘surrender’ to the will of God and see whether we have the courage to do so cheerfully, willingly and totally.
Shadow
In his Apostolic Letter ‘Patris Corde’ on the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, Pope Francis writes, “The Polish writer Jan Dobraczyński, in his book ‘The Shadow of the Father’, tells the story of Saint Joseph’s life in the form of a novel. He uses the evocative image of a shadow to define Joseph. In his relationship to Jesus, Joseph was the earthly shadow of the heavenly Father: he watched over him and protected him, never leaving him to go his own way. We can think of Moses’ words to Israel: “In the wilderness… you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you travelled”. In a similar way, Joseph acted as a father for his whole life.” He adds, “Joseph found happiness not in mere self-sacrifice but in self-gift. In him, we never see frustration but only trust. His patient silence was the prelude to concrete expressions of trust. Our world today needs fathers. It has no use for tyrants who would domineer others as a means of compensating for their own needs. It rejects those who confuse authority with authoritarianism, service with servility, discussion with oppression, charity with a welfare mentality, power with destruction”. Like St Joseph we too are called to be God’s shadow in today’s world. Lent, in the year dedicated to St Joseph, is an apt time for each one of us to be that shadow.
Sincerity
Lent above all is a time when we are called to turn away from every possible sin: personal and communitarian; sins of commission and of omission. In doing so, we experience the unconditional forgiveness and the tender embrace of our loving Father. Our remorse has to be based on sincerity: like the prodigal son. There are no half-hearted measures in this journey towards wholeness and holiness The Oxford English Dictionary and most scholars state that the word ‘sincerity’ is derived from the Latin ‘sincerus’ meaning clean, pure, sound. Sincerus also means ‘one’s growth’; from sin (one) and crescere (to grow). We need to die to our sinfulness in order to grow in Jesus.
Sacrifice
During this Season, we journey towards that Supreme Sacrifice: the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross. We are invited to do likewise: to take up our cross and follow him. We are encouraged to fast, to abstain, to do penance. In reality it means to ‘let go’: to give up our addictions, whatever keeps us tied down very particularly the materiality of this world. To ‘sacrifice’ in the complete sense of the word all that we love the most so that we can come closer to God. It begins with an attitude of self-giving; Abraham ready to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. The sacrifice is also about the temptations we are lured into: pride, possessions, power, privileges, positions anything and everything that makes us arrogant, possessive and self-centred. It is about walking that extra mile; of giving up our best shirt or most treasured possession and not, the crumbs that fall from the table, the left-over food, our old clothes, used toys and anything else discarded.
Service
A significant characteristic of Lent is service; the term ‘alms- giving’ is often used, it is however much more than that: it is radically portrayed in the widow’s mite: silently and totally; in the way Jesus kneels down to wash the feet of his disciples. ‘Service’ today has become very loud and with plenty of fanfare, being a benefactor with a top-down approach. Genuine service is not a photo-op, of doling out to others, of showing the whole world of what I am doing. Real service is hidden, accompanying the other selflessly without counting the cost particularly in the small, simple ordinary things of daily life. It is the ability to reach out to the lost, last and least. For this grace we need to pray in the words of our Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, “This is my prayer to you, my Lord: give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service”
Serenity
In the hustle- bustle and business of our world ‘serenity’ almost sounds like an obsolete and irrelevant concept; it is however, an essential requisite for Lent: the calm and peace needed to lead us to Jesus and also to address the activities which overwhelm our lives. Serenity is not just a demeanour it is intrinsic: a way of life. The American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr gives us that beautiful ‘Prayer for Serenity’ “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things that must be changed and wisdom to know the difference”.
Sensitivity
Compassion, concern and care are key elements which radiate one’s sensitivity. Lent is an opportunity to hone this value. In ‘Laudato Si’ Pope Francis insists on personal and social sensitivity. We must care for the earth our common home but at the same time, we must also be sensitive to cries of our sisters and brothers. He says, “a sense of deep communion with the rest of nature cannot be real if our hearts lack tenderness, compassion and concern for our fellow human beings…. It is no coincidence that, in the canticle in which Saint Francis praises God for his creatures, he goes on to say: “Praised be you my Lord, through those who give pardon for your love”. Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society”.
Stand
Lent gives us the opportunity to stand upright and not be cowed down or broken by insolent might. We experience this non-negotiable from the time Jesus is condemned to death, all through the way of the cross, till the moment Jesus tells his Father that his mission on earth is accomplished. Right through the way of cross (as he did so in his public ministry) Jesus took a visible and vocal stand against the Pilates and Herods, the scribes and the pharisees, the greedy and the exploiters of his time. He stood for truth and justice and never compromised on them. Jesus tells us to let our light shine but to also ensure that it is placed on a stand and not under the bed
Solidarity
In ‘Fratelli Tutti’ Pope Francis tell us that “Solidarity is a word that is not always well received; in certain situations, it has become a dirty word, a word that dare not be said. Solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community. It means that the lives of all are prior to the appropriation of goods by a few. It also means combatting the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and housing, the denial of social and labour rights. It means confronting the destructive effects of the empire of money… Solidarity, understood in its most profound meaning, is a way of making history, and this is what popular movements are doing”.
The toolkit for Lent therefore encompasses ten Ss all intrinsically interrelated like a beautifully embroidered multi-coloured tapestry. A toolkit which we must readily share with all -through our Silence, Surrender, Shadow, Sincerity, Sacrifice, Service, Serenity, Sensitivity, Stand and Solidarity – in doing so, we will certainly experience the profound joy of this holy season.
Fr Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights and peace activist/writer. Contact: [email protected]