AS SORROWFUL, YET ALWAY REJOICING

 A REFLECTION FOR QUADRAGESIMA SUNDAY

Behold, says St. Paul, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.  Today is the first Sunday in Lent, and is designated by the Church, through the inclusion of St. Paul’s words in today’s Mass, as the “accepted time… the day of salvation.”  The time has come, in other words, when we must set aside all worldly cares and focus—intensely—on our salvation.

 

Each of us is at a different stage of his or her life.  But all of us are getting older, and the more years we accrue, the more we come to grips with the idea that this life doesn’t go on forever, that each day that passes brings us closer to our eternal judgment.  Time, for some of us, is running out, and the imposition of ashes on our forehead brings with it a far greater sense of foreboding that the dust of the tomb awaits us.   

 

As St. Paul says, we are “as dying, and, behold, we live.”  For one of the great consolations of our faith is precisely that the closer we get to our earthly demise, the faster we approach an eternal happiness far beyond our finite comprehension.  The sufferings of this life are as nothing compared to our reward hereafter.  In fact, the more crosses that are piled upon us, the greater that reward may be, providing we do as St. Paul counsels us, by accepting those crosses and carrying them with Christ, “in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in watchings, in fastings.”  Many are the opportunities for bearing our crosses “in patience”, and Lent is our annual reminder of how we should strive after this patience.

 

So let’s turn our entire attention to how we may use this “accepted time” to the profit of our soul.  The three pillars of Lent are Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving, and every one of us can surely benefit from practicing all of these to a greater extent than the rest of the year.  By doing so, we will learn to understand the peace on earth that our Lord brings to men of good will, we will know how we may be “dying, and, behold, we live; chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things.”

 

Lent has just begun.  Pray for the perseverance to continue your penances faithfully, through the Passion and Death of our Lord and on to his glorious Resurrection.  The events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday seem so far away, but let’s be assured that they will come, just as surely as our own Passion and Death, and our own Resurrection.  Our fate at that point rests in our own hands today, as we commit to our salvation—or not.  Today’s the day, the accepted time, the day of salvation.