A Lenten Reflection

Each year, the season of Lent is offered to us as a time of renewal. Usually, we take up this Lenten journey as the gift of personal renewal in terms of our relationship with the Lord. 

Our renewal becomes concrete when it comes down to self-denial which allows us to live our faith more authentically. What better way to deny the ego than to focus on something beyond ourselves, beyond our modern self-absorbed ‘selfie’ society. 

Consider Lent as a time to hear the cry of the poor and grow in solidarity with them. That is why I think the ‘Matthew 25 Challenge’ comes at an opportune time that helps us grow closer to our Lord who tells us that if we wish to love him, we must express that love as love for the least of our brothers and sisters. 

If we spend Lent reflecting upon the situation of the poor, we will begin to pray differently. We will see not only see their radical dependence upon God but we will find ourselves turning to God on their behalf, before we ask anything of God for ourselves. 

This kind of prayer purifies our prayer. It helps us pray with a renewed spirit. It frees us from so many of the demands we can place on God, especially for things like comfort or success or just getting things my way. With the poor as our pray-er companions, we can surrender more easily and ask God for what really matters - first on their behalf and then for ourselves. Our prayer for ourselves will more freely become a prayer that we might be transformed to be better servants for others, especially conscious of those on the margins of society. 

It will ultimately lead us to ask the Lord to help us make our lifestyle more sim-ple. It can lead us to ask to be freed from our dependence upon so many of the benefits of the unjust social structures of our world. Finally, it might lead me to ask for the courage to act against those unjust social structures, even to disman-tle them. 

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Adapted from an article titled ‘Lent as: Hearing the Cry of the Poor’ in http://onlineministries. creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/hearing-cry-of-the-poor.html. Accessed 5 Apr 2019.