REFLECTION
FROM ASHES TO THE GLORY OF THE
RESURRECTION
Javier Guativa
Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and
we will be at threshold of Easter. As we approach the end of Lent it is good to
review what the days of Lent have meant for us and remind ourselves that Lent
is not an isolated liturgical season, but is closely linked to the celebration
of Easter. Lent is to Easter what Advent is to Christmas. We all know that
great feasts are prepared for in advance; we need to prepare our hearts to
celebrate them with joy. And to get to the festive joy of Easter we had
also need to prepare ourselves, patiently, through the discovery of who we are
and self-growth.
For many Catholics, Lent is not
their preferred time of the year, perhaps, because, since the imposition of
ashes, we are reminded of our death, through words like "sacrifice",
"discipline" and "fast" that are repeated in the readings.
We come to believe that we are in a season focused on pain, rather than seeing
this season as an opportunity to grow. Very rarely do we think that Lent is a
second annual opportunity that we have to check whether our values and
priorities are in line with God's desires for us.
We began Lent with the Spirit
leading us into the desert. A difficult place in which we were invited to
confront the fears, doubts, failures, disappointments, and despair that often
creeps into our lives, something we usually avoid doing. A good Lent, however,
ends with a new understanding of ourselves, and a willingness to change and
grow away from our torments.
Let’s look at three areas for
meditation that could help us to review our Lenten season in light of the
Easter festivity that is approaching.
1. Creators of Peace. Nobody likes to be destructive or unkind;
hurting the one you love, hurting the person who believes in you, or to know
that after certain gestures, words, or actions, there is no turning back and we
have already triggered storms.
On the other hand, the path of
Lent, which ends in joy, should lead us to discover the logic of peace: to let
go of all the resentment, revenge, insult and reproach that we could have and
to bring forth all the willingness to heal wounds and build bridges.
2. Loving with solidarity. Life
and happiness are in love, in compassion, in living with and for others. Good
personal growth and change always brings us to be ever closer and less
indifferent to others. So this Lent we needed the cry of the prophets who spoke
out and woke us up. They reminded us that the needs of others are also our
needs, "If one member suffers, all suffer together" (1 Cor. 12:26).
Loving with solidarity is
quality of life, because the neighbor is no longer for us a rival, but rather a
complement and stimulus that leads us to abandon all the false comfort and
divisive positions that we could have developed.
3. Joy. The preparation of the days of Lent ends
with the joy of knowing the risen Jesus. If we have gone through the season of
Lent looking at it as a time of deprivation rather than a time of growth and
enrichment, it will be difficult to experience the joy of Easter. If instead,
we lived Lent with a loving spirit, a spirit willing to be renovated, to be
positive, to overcome our selfishness and develop our best qualities, then we
will be happy about what we have achieved, and we will be eager to share that
joy with others.
Let us continue our Lenten
journey to reach the Easter festivities more peacefully, more caring and more
cheerfully than when we started.
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