Overcoming Lent's Challenges through Trust in Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Tridentine Mass
Summary of Headings
- The Challenges of Lent
- Facing Temptation
- The Role of Psalm 90
- Surrendering to God
- The Importance of Trust
- Conclusion
The Challenges of Lent
One of the difficulties of Lent is just everything just kind of falls upon us and bombards us all at once. We receive the ashes on our forehead to remind us of our mortality. That we are going to die. A hard truth that we don't like to recognize. We accept penances and we impose penances upon ourselves for the purpose of detaching ourselves from the things of this earth. Recognizing that this is not our final home. We also have to deal with the fact that by the mere fact of renouncing things and turning away from things, we are going to be attacked. The world, the flesh, and the devil are not going to live. They are going to let us actually try to do better in peace. They are going to fight us.
Facing Temptation
We have the image of our Lord Jesus Christ himself being tempted by the devil. We have the image of what it means to try to perfect ourselves because he goes into the desert fasting and praying in preparation for his public ministry. And this is the result. The devil comes and tempts him. We also have to go through something of that. When we are weaker from our penances. From our fastings and abstaining. That's the moment that the devil strikes. But it's also the moment where our humanity is weakest. We are weak from hunger. Our blood sugar is low. Whatever the excuse may be. We get grumpier. We get nastier. We start to see people with a less than charitable lens. We start to become more irritable about just the simple personalities and oddities of the people around us. Whatever it may be.
The Role of Psalm 90
Things start to change. Things start to grate on us far more. And it becomes far harder for us to practice true virtue in times where we are actually trying to practice true virtue. Again, the world, the flesh, and the devil are not going to let us go that easily. And so as a result, when we get wind of this and when we start to become aware of this, it's easy to get discouraged. On top of this, one of the points of Lent is for us to really delve deep into our own personal flaws and failings. And to recognize the fact that we are unmitigated wretches. That we are horrible sinners. That we are people who, without the grace of God, are not worth anything. The only thing that is truly ours are our sins. And again, this can be extraordinarily, marrow-crushingly depressing.
Surrendering to God
But we cannot become depressed or discouraged. Whether it's our own mortality. Whether our sinfulness. Whether our weakness. Whether even in striving harder to do good, we end up failing more. Things like that. Those things should not discourage us in the slightest. And the Church, to try to remind us of this, just three days into Lent, four days into Lent, reminds us with the most powerful and most beautiful imagery of Psalm 90. That long track that everyone was dozing off to. That was just a moment. That was just a moment to go. Was actually one of the most beautiful things. It's the entirety of Psalm 90. One that we are supposed to sing with every Sunday Compline. Because it is the psalm of most perfect confidence in God.
The Importance of Trust
It is the psalm in which King David was stripped alone. He was entirely abandoned. He was fleeing from King Saul. He had no soldiers, practically, following him. He had nothing to his name. And James... Yet he sings this psalm of absolute and perfect confidence. Knowing that God is going to deliver him. And for us it's important, it's crucial, as we enter Lent and as we get into Lent, we appreciate what it means. We may be weak. We may be wretches. We may be sinners. The enemies may be much stronger than us. We may not be able to throw off the lassoes of the world that easily. We may not be able to free ourselves of the many snares that we've managed to get ourselves into.
Conclusion
The devil may be far cleverer than us. We may have more difficulties in sanctifying ourselves and we may be very weak. But that does not matter. Because the battle is not ours. The fight is not ours. The accomplishments are not ours. Our sanctity is not ours. We succeed in it only because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because he is the one who is the one who will bring us salvation. The one who gives us strength and guidance and help and support. Psalm 90 is such a beautiful hymn of just simple confidence. Knowing that no matter what, God is protecting us. That there is nothing the enemy can do to us to overcome us if we truly trust in him. He will always make sure we succeed if we surrender ourselves to him.
But the problem that we run into and it's a problem that we must confront in Lent. Is that usually instead of fighting our enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. To be able to surrender to our Lord Jesus Christ. We usually end up fighting our Lord Jesus Christ. So we don't surrender to him and give ourselves over to the world, the flesh and the devil. We have habitually done that through most of our lives for whatever purpose. And we justify ourselves in doing it many times. Finding a reason or a way. Or a because that we are able to follow. This is why I do this. It is right that I do this. It is okay that I am uncharitable because that person needed to hear that. I just needed to vent. I just needed to rant. Whatever the excuse may be. But the reality is we are still fighting surrendering to God. In doing so. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one that we must surrender to. He is the only and quote unquote. Enemy that we win by surrendering to. We end up becoming victorious by giving up in the battle that we fight against him.