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Pastoral Letter

Our Need of Lent
 
When Lent arrives early in late winter, it may seem too soon after the Christmas season. There may still be some unused presents hanging around the house. Perhaps we would rather snuggle up as couch potatoes than prepare our rice bowls. When Lent arrives late, Spring is already in the air, and the allure of nature’s resurrection holds sway over the desert of repentance.
 
There was a time, of course, when all Christians thought they didn't need Lent. After all, they had been baptized in the Lord. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they lived life quite differently from the pagans.
 
The first real Lenten people were not Christians, but those preparing to become Christian. They wore sackcloth and ashes and lived the days before Easter as repentant sinners. But all of that changed when the old timers in the Christian community noticed something remarkable at the Easter baptism. They were struck by the joy and the radiant faces of those just baptized. They, too, longed to experience the joy of new birth, new strength, and new life. They realized they had become too ho-hum in their faith and decided to do something about it. And so, the next year, some Christians began to join the catechumens in their preparation for baptism at Easter.
 
Those already baptized took on sackcloth and ashes, too, and lived the days before Easter as repentant sinners. They did this so that they could feel once again the joy of rebirth at Easter.
 
Even though Jesus had been baptized by John and was "full of the Holy Spirit," he felt a need to go into the desert. After the desert, after his first temptation, Jesus realized whom he was and what he was called to do. He came out of the desert with a gospel and a firm faith in his Father that he would take to Calvary.
 
We are like Jesus and the early Christians who felt a need to experience repentance. We share a common struggle and a common pain. Like the early Christians, we are all driven by the same doubts. We sometimes make choices about the most important events in our lives, without reflection, without faith, without prayer, without God.

We cannot force Lent upon ourselves. Each of us must find a need for it, a need to go into the desert to face both our gifts and our limits, a need to face ourselves, our demons, and our God.
 
Whether Lent be early or late, whether or not it all seems a bit too risky for comfort, let us nevertheless go into the desert together, following in Christ’s footsteps, conscious of our relationship with one another and our Creator, to find out who we really are and what we are called to do. We have a need.
 
Your companion and Parish Priest,
 
Fr Nicholas