Scriptural Guidance for Lent

The Church gives us the season of Lent to prepare our hearts for the day that changed the course of history: Easter Sunday.

Of course we should strive every day to know, love, and serve the Lord better. But it is very easy to lose focus. Here are some good Scripture verses to reflect on during Lent.

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing” [Luke 10:41-42].

I think one of the biggest spiritual dangers for modern Catholics is simply distraction. There are many demands on our time that are legitimate, worthy, and good. As a result, we can be just like Martha, doing something good but to the detriment of our spiritual life.

Although most of us can sympathize with Martha more than Mary in that story, we cannot dismiss our Lord’s rebuke of Martha. He tells us the same thing: do not put earthly things, concerns, or worries in the place of God. It is a subtle and wily way that the devil ensnares us. But we need to remember that whenever suffering or anxiety overwhelms us, the Lord does not will our misery. Rather, He allows it so that we turn to Him.

Our Lord’s teaching applies to the daily grind, but it also applies to the large anxieties in life. The world has been in a slog the past two years. Worries and anxieties abound – indeed, the demon of fear has a powerful grip on the world. And now there is war as well! But in the face of these burdens, the words of Jesus do not change: “there is need of only one thing.”

If putting God first is as difficult for you as it is for me, resolve to start anew this Lent.

“No, I will buy it from you at the proper price, for I cannot sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing” [2 Samuel 24:24].

At the very end of 2 Samuel, King David wanted to offer a sacrifice of oxen to the Lord. David approached Araunah, seeking to buy the farmer’s threshing floor in order to build an offer of sacrifice. In a generous spirit, Araunah offered the threshing floor, some oxen, and their yokes to David as a gift. David refused out of a desire to give a true offering to God.

David shows us an important lesson for Lent. The counsels of prayer, fasting, and alms giving fall under this lesson. To have a better prayer life, we must sacrifice time spent doing other things.

Like with David, praying more should “cost” us some of our time watching TV, fiddling on our smart phones, or perhaps even sleeping. Fasting from food should make us uncomfortable (but please note, fasting should not harm us physically). This could be as simple as giving up salt, soda, alcohol, or takeout. Alms giving should not imperil our family, but it should imperil our comfort. Consider for a moment: what do we spend on coffee each month? What about hobbies? And how many worthy charities there are!

“Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal”[2 Corinthians 4:16-18].

Last year, I participated in an Exodus 90 group through my parish. It felt like climbing a mountain, but grace provided more benefits than the mortifications took away. I recommend trying it! To some extent, I felt like I was wasting away, giving up warm showers, alcohol, and sweets. St. Paul, however, endured being shipwrecked, stoned, beaten, and imprisoned.

So read the 2 Corinthians verse again and consider that it comes from a man who looked death square in the face multiple times. Yet he still relentlessly preached the salvation offered in Jesus Christ. I think it takes on far more weight when read from this this perspective. From a man battered and bruised for Christ, he says, never mind the “momentary light (!) affliction.”

This Lent, embrace the cross, but look beyond it.  Look to the eternal.

“The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior, Who will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love, Who will sing joyfully because of you” [Zephaniah 3:17].

We ought never to forget the might and power of God and that it is thoroughly saturated with His love. The same God Who created the depths of the ocean and the highest mountains – and all the intricacies of those and everything in between – rejoices “over you with gladness.”

We have the benefit of the Incarnation to know that Jesus fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Zephaniah. Our mighty Savior spared not a single drop of His own blood to rescue us from sin.

“At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed” [Hebrews 12:11-13].

Heed the ever-present reminder in the New Testament: holiness is not something we drift into. It takes striving, endurance, and a willingness to suffer. We get the strength to walk along those straight paths from God, not from our effort. Mediocrity is on the other side of the battle line! We are not called to be a good person. Rather we are called to heroic virtue, Christ-like charity, and the kind of faith that can withstand the furnace.

Jesus calls us to sainthood! Use the disciplines of this Lent to deepen your relationship with Christ and run in the way of holiness.