Every year in the early days of Lent there are people who
confess that they missed Mass on Ash Wednesday,
thinking it to be a Day of Obligation. Every year towards
the end of Lent there are people who confess that they
have not followed through on their Lenten disciplines and in
many cases have even stopped trying and are now
practicing no Lenten discipline at all. Such confessions are
examples of two very common faults – ignorance and
arrogance.
In the case of Ash Wednesday it is rather simple: they did
not know that it is not a Day of Obligation. However, there
is a catch: if one believes it to be a Day of Obligation, and
does not make a good faith effort to find a Mass they can
attend, or deliberately missed Mass, then it is a sin! At any
rate the sin involved arises initially from ignorance.
Not following through on ones Lenten resolutions might
be seen as a fault of weakness. And weakness does enter
into it, but arrogance also plays a role. All too often we
make unrealistically difficult Lenten resolutions and in doing
so make two common mistakes. First, we tend to say to
ourselves, “I can do this.” Rather than, “With God’s help I
can do this.” And second, we often forget the real reason
we are undertaking our Lent disciplines in the first place.
Namely, we are doing penance in order to purify ourselves
from sin so as to be better able to both love and serve the
Lord. The Lenten discipline is not itself the goal but a
means to the goal, which is unity with Christ. And what
keeps us from Christ is sin, hence the need for our Lenten
disciplines or penances. The irony is that so often we bite
off more than we can chew in the way of Lenten penances
and end up doing nothing and what was supposed to lead
us out of sin becomes part of our fall. What to do?
First and foremost we have to realize our utter
dependence on God for the strength to carry through on
our Lenten practices. To think “I can do this by myself,” is
pure arrogance and smacks of Pelagianism which denies
the necessity of Grace for salvation. Second, recognizing
our own weakness, start small. A specific penance or
practice may not be as easy as we first thought it to be. If
the practice is easily performed then to increase its severity
by degrees. Start small and by the Grace of God build up
to something larger. If we fall we should not get
discouraged but should pick ourselves up, dust ourselves
off and start again.
This is where the Sacrament of Reconciliation is
important – it is there that we dust ourselves off and are
given the Grace to start again. By using the Sacrament
before we fall we can gain the strength not to fall. So it is
important to make frequent use of the Sacrament,
combining it with reception of the Eucharist.
Our Lenten practices will be successful if, as Easter
approaches, we find ourselves looking forward to it, even
longing for it – not for the release of our Lenten practices
but for the sheer joy of Easter itself. Then we might even
find that some part of our Lenten practices have become so
part of us that we continue them throughout the year and
thereby continue to be transformed in Christ.