A Call to Repentance - A Lenten Reflection

Come back to me

With all you heart

Don't let fear keep us apart,

Trees do bend,

Though straight and tall

So must we to others' call.

We sing this year in, year out as a Lenten chant, but do we allow these words to minister to our hearts as it should? Our theme today looks at 'A Call to Repentance'. To repent means to change our hearts and minds to bring us closer to God. It also means turning away from sin and avoiding all occasions of sin by seeking God's forgiveness because we love him so much.

The period of Lent gives us an opportunity to rebuild our covenant with Christ. Many of us need to be reminded that the relationship we share with our Saviour is beyond precious and we must constantly thank him on a daily basis for giving us such a gift, to be able to talk to him, love him and serve him. Romans 3:23 reminds us that 'we all fall short of the Glory of God'. It is given, we are not perfect, we are mere human beings and for us to be as sinless and spotless as Jesus is not an easy thing but if we remind ourselves of the Gospel which we heard two weeks ago taken from Matthew, 'we must be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect'. Jesus jut wants to see us make an effort. As the old saying goes, 'Do your best and God will do the rest'. If we try and fail, it is better than failing to try at all and what we are trying to do is to maintain our covenant with God. 

Our God is so awesome, so great, so loving and so merciful. No matter how big of a sin we may have committed, he is ready with open arms to welcome us back but there is one thing we must do and that is Repent. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is sacred since it is that moment where the priest in Persona Christi absolves all our sins so that our relationship with Christ is spotless and free and flaws.  But why is reconciliation so important especially in the Lenten season? As we move towards this season and approach the Easter Triduum, we journey with Christ in those three days, we feast with Jesus on Holy Thursday, we die with Jesus on Good Friday and we come out of the tomb with Jesus on Gloria Saturday and why would we want to 'die' and 'rise' when there is sin penetrating our hearts and blocking us from experiencing that 'Gloria' moment on Easter weekend? So the Lenten period allows us to do some self-introspection, so that we are able to see where exactly we must improve in our spiritual life and correct it, as a result we become closer with God. 

One final point to remember, a term was used earlier on, Persona Christi, it is Latin for 'In the Person of Christ' and every time we go before a priest for him to hear our confession, he (the priest) is in Persona Christi, so it Jesus Christ we are confessing to, not the priest. So don't hide or run away from attaining the graces that await you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, come and claim it because Jesus is waiting for you to rebuild the relationship with him and what better way, what better time than now, in this season of repentance. Glory to God!

-- B. Durham, 2014