No more sausage and pepperoni pizza on Fridays…
Or complaining.
(That wasn’t a complaint, I promise).
It’s that time of year again!
Between Ash Wednesday and Easter, Christians around the world spend 40 days experiencing Lent.
When I was younger, I didn’t practice giving things up for Lent. My faith wasn’t a huge deal to me at the time and it wasn’t until late high school/ early college that I became involved with my Catholic faith. I didn’t understand why people gave things up; all I knew was that my family didn’t eat meat on Fridays and then we ate a lot of ham on Easter.
Within the past few years, I gave up things like soda and saying bad words while I was driving (people would cut me off). However, giving up soda didn’t help me feel closer to God at all - and the language thing… yeah.
This year, I decided to push myself a bit more. Recently, I reflected over the meaning of Lent and had a revelation over the purpose of Lent and why it’s important. Why did it take me so long to figure this out? I honestly have no explanation for you…but better late than never, right?
Let’s go back to Biblical times when Jesus spent 40 days and nights being tempted by the devil (this passage can be found in the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke, aka, the Synoptic Gospels). During this period of fasting, Jesus was tempted by the devil and Jesus resisted giving into every single temptation that the devil threw at Him. Approximately three years later, He entered into His passion that led to Him dying on the cross, being buried, descending into Hell and rising again.
So, what’s this whole “40 days thing” about?
Think about it this way: Jesus spent 40 days suffering just for us and was strong enough to resist temptation, something that we all have trouble doing (including myself). So, what we do is choose something (or a few things) to give up. By giving up something that we either love or struggle with, we empty ourselves, not giving into the gratification. In other words, we let ourselves go through a spiritual suffering and death. We give up our selfishness and give up our vanity. When we are struggling to not give into temptation, we hold onto Jesus so that He may carry us through the struggle. We place our complete trust in Him and pray, and let He who has overcome temptation help us overcome ours. In doing so, we struggle with Jesus and witness His love overpower our lives and overwhelm all that we are. We learn that Jesus is truly the highest and purest form of love that there is; the same love that led to Him dying on a cross for our sins.
Once we go through this part of the journey, we have a new, refreshed faith that transforms us into people who have witnessed the power of Christ. We are filled with the Holy Spirit and are able to live a life geared toward glorifying Him instead of ourselves. This is where Easter comes in. Easter is all about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the dead coming back to life. As He suffered and died, so have we. Easter is when we rise again with Him. So Lent is the suffering that we go through as Jesus went through, and Easter is the point in which we are transformed and renewed within Christ. Think of it as a “rebirth.” In fact, there is a beautiful Bible verse that relates to this, from Galatians 2:20 (NIV) which states, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We are a new creation, and one that is in communion with the Lord.
So this Lent, let yourself cling onto Jesus, and let His love consume you so that you may be transformed and know the power and the love of Jesus. Let go of the earthly desires that consume you—and yes, it will be difficult. Lent isn’t meant to be easy. But that’s the point.
After the struggle, we too, are brought to life.
