Following in the Footsteps of Christ through Lent, by Fr. Michael Davitti, s.x. in Focus on Mission

e begin our Lenten Season on Ash Wednesday. I was considering how the little black mark on our foreheads, a visible sign that we attended a Penitential Service, gives us away as followers of Christ and as Christians. That little mark shows that we begun our Lenten Season.

By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus' withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days. All churches observe Lent because the ancient church believed it to be a commandment from the apostles themselves.

The ashes we use for this ceremony come from burning the palm fronds from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebration. One has to remember how “ashes” in the Bible are a sign of remorse, repentance, and mourning. Today someone might wear a black armband to signify that they are in mourning; back then in those days, people put ashes on their heads.

We are well aware that it takes more than a pinch of ashes to make a good Catholic: Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for reflection and taking stock.

Should somebody from Muslim Countries travel to our Christian countries during our penitential Season of Lent, would he/she notice anything special about Christians keeping the "Lenten Fast? Would Lent be evident in the way we behave? Would he/she know, just from watching us, that anything of religious significance were underway?

Ash Wednesday marks for us Christians the beginning of a journey, a holy pilgrimage, to the very center of our inner being, our heart, the sanctuary made by God himself for Himself.

On Ash Wednesday we received also a solemn warning: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return! ‘ With this warning we were invited to look at life for the prospective of eternity.

In reality we know that more than from the dust of the earth we come from the very heart of God. During this Lenten Season we are called back to behave according to what we are: children of God, made such by the love of Jesus.

If we fail to make Jesus our friend during this Lent, then on Good Friday it will be a stranger whom we watch to die. A person for whom we could not care less.

Should somebody from Muslim Countries travel to our Christian countries during our penitential Season of Lent, would he/she notice anything special about Christians keeping the "Lenten Fast"? Would Lent be evident in the way we behave? Would he/she know, just from watching us, that anything of religious significance were underway?

Our society allows Christianity to exist as long as it remains ensconced in the privacy of our minds and feelings. In a certain sense we Christians have rendered our faith disembodied and invisible. We cleared and paved the way for the blandly secularized society that surrounds us.

Looking at the congregation gathered for the traditional distribution of ashes, I felt great admiration for them and for their faith. Willingly and publicly they joined the ranks of "sinners" accepting the ashes on their foreheads. They knew that in this way they were going to be saved, because Jesus came "to save sinners". I saw only the genuine desire to be holy. Sin makes us sad! It makes aware that we are not as holy as we think or wish to be. We are on the way to perfection; we are not arrived, yet.

During this Lent we want to start thinking in a “Catholic way” broadening the horizons of our life, going beyond our little world and have the same big heart of Jesus. During this blessed time we’d like to join, in spirit, the thousand catechumens all over the world who will be praying and getting ready for Easter Baptism. We join all the Christians who sincerely wish to be better people: "Light of the world, salt of the earth" as Jesus wanted us to be.

The desire to be saintly people, to be holy is in itself a sign of predestination because God first gives the desire, then its fulfillment.

Per Crucem ad Lucem - (To the Joys of the Resurrection through the pains of the Cross)

Fr. Michael