Lent begins tomorrow with the ashes of Ash Wednesday. It's common to hear people plan parties for tonight with huge amounts of sweets and other pleasures. After all, the thinking goes, we won't be able to enjoy ourselves again until Easter.
It's true that Lent is a season to focus on acts of self-denial. Self-denial, however, is not unique to Christians. Athletes (1 Cor 9:25), pregnant women, soldiers (2 Tm 2:4), dieters, Buddhists, and others often perform heroic acts of self-denial that make giving up chocolate for the forty days of Lent pale in comparison. Our Lenten sacrifices must help us grow deeply in our relationship with Jesus. Our Lenten crosses, when joined to the sacrifices of Jesus (1 Pt 4:13; Col 1:24; Phil 1:29), become acts of penance and reparation.
Will your Lenten self-denials simply be acts of self-improvement, or will they help you to "draw close to God" (Jas 4:8)? Is your goal to "make it" to Easter with no failures, or is your goal to be united with the crucified Jesus out of love for Him?
As for not being able to "enjoy ourselves" again until Easter, when we draw close to Jesus in a spirit of repentance, we will find a joy that is heavenly (Lk 15:7, 10), "full" (Jn 16:24), and "inexpressible" (1 Pt 1:8). No Mardi Gras party can begin to compare with sharing in Jesus' joy. So why wait until tomorrow to "draw close to God"? Turn to Jesus today.
| PRAYER: | Jesus, may I be so consumed with love of You that I don't even notice the pleasures of the world. |
| PROMISE: | "There is no one who has given up home, brothers or sisters, mother or father, children or property, for Me and for the gospel who will not receive in this present age a hundred times as many." –Mk 10:29-30 |
| PRAISE: | George commemorates Shrove Tuesday by going to Confession. |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College