Preparing for Lent: Transforming Our Souls in the Tridentine Mass
Summary of Headings
- Introduction to Lent Preparation
- St. Paul's Example and the Parable of Jesus
- Addressing Division and Elitism in the Church
- The Root of Modern Narcissism
- Practical Steps for Lent
- Conclusion
Introduction to Lent Preparation
We are in the time of Septuagesima, which means that we are supposed to be preparing for Lent. Now it's easy for us to get a little confused. Lent itself is a preparation for the time of Easter, but Lent being a complete change and shift from the time before, we must consider how we are to prepare for it. What it is we are going to do to enter into the spirit of penance that is the hallmark of what Lent is.
St. Paul's Example and the Parable of Jesus
And so, for this purpose, the church gives us this great example of St. Paul in his epistle today, the second letter to the Corinthians, as well as the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have a choice. We can decide on how we are going to receive the word of God, how it is we are going to live by the faith. He gives us that choice. We can be any of these types of soil. So it's of course important for us to try to transform ourselves into the type of soil that is going to receive the word of God, quietly and well, without any obstacles, in good and fertile soil.
Addressing Division and Elitism in the Church
So, how do we transform our soul into good and fertile soil? Well, we remove the things that are obstacles to that seed, which comes, of course, from the spirit of penance. So, what penance should we focus on? Well, of course, we all have any number of defects that we should focus on, and that's to each their own, as it were. But if I might add one, shall we say, or point out one that is very obvious from the epistle and from the gospel today, that is very simply what St. Paul is talking about. Why does St. Paul go into this long-seeming rant to the Corinthians about everything that he had suffered, all the things that he had done for the faith, comparing himself to them? It seems almost like he's boasting.
The Root of Modern Narcissism
Well, the problem was, at that time, the Corinthian community was quite divided. There was a lot of infighting, a lot of nastiness going on among the Christian community, because there were the Judaizers against the Gentiles. There were the ones who thought that the ones who came from the old law were superior to those who had just been converted to the faith, having not been part of the old law. There were those who were baptized by St. Paul, who believed that they were superior to the ones who were baptized by Apollo or Luke, or anybody else. There were ones who believed they were superior to others because they received visions and great gifts, the power of miracles, or whatever else, or were great teachers of the faith, or had suffered for their faith, or whatever else may be the case. There was a certain case of elitism in the church, shall we call it, where everyone thought that they were superior to the other because of one grace or another. It's nice to know that nothing has changed.
Practical Steps for Lent
The church has always had this issue where people tend to try to contend who is the better Catholic, who is the better servant of God, who receives more graces, who does this better, who does that better, who gives more, who does more, whatever may be the case. There is this constant spirit of antagonism within the church simply for the fact that we are believers, but we believe better than others. And we are the special anointed as opposed to just the anointed, and whatever else may be the case. This kind of division is a perpetual issue, and yes, in the here and the now, this is still an issue. It is something that needs to be abhorred because it is born of that third group of soil that our Lord spoke about in the parable.
Conclusion
The one that is so concerned with the cares and worries of the world that it lets itself be choked by the thorns of the world. The one that is so concerned with the cares and worries of the world that the seed can spring up. Yes, we can have faith, yes, but it is torn down by the polluted intentions of self-interest. It's not just the temptations from the outside that our Lord is talking about, it is the cares and the concerns of the worldly that is the problem. That we get so involved in whatever it is that may be causing us, that may be, shall we say, causing us all these issues, that may be causing us to be overly concerned, about any number of things, just trying to be a little better than the other person, just trying to make sure that everybody knows that we're anointed or that we suffer, crying the victim all the time, whatever may be the case, whatever may be our defect.
All of these things are born from an imperfect spirit of the faith. They are born from a selfish perspective of what it means to be God's chosen people. We are God's chosen people, not from any merit, not from any gift, not from anything that we have of our own selves. It is not because we are so wise, or we are so strong, or we are so capable, or because we just had this magnificent revelation while all the rest just lose themselves. We have this gift only because God is good. That's the only reason. We have faith because God is good and he loves us and he wants us to be saved. We have grown in virtue only because God has encouraged it and increased it. We have been able to deny certain aspects of ourselves only because God has given us the strength and the guidance to do so.
We have been able to do anything good only and only by his power. The only thing that is good within us always comes from him. And that is a beautiful lesson. That is a beautiful gift to have. That is a magnificent gift that we must be grateful for. And we must be willing to sacrifice for. But unfortunately, it's easy for ourselves to start to consider our faith as just like a competition. So long as I just eke out being a little better than everybody else around us. So long as I'm not like those people. So long as I can look down on somebody, I'm doing okay. That's of course completely false.
It's also an unfortunate situation that we just need to compare ourselves a little bit more. I have received more gifts or more crosses. I have been a little bit better this week than this person. That poor person is gossiping again. How I pity them. Whatever else may be the case. All these things. How we think about other people. How we see ourselves in the eyes of the world, etc. All of that has an impact. On how it is we are living our faith.
Because that is not true faith. That is ourselves trying to control the narrative of what it means to be a devoted member of the faith. That is us trying to elevate ourselves above others. And that is an impossibility. It has nothing to do with anybody else. Grace, faith, these are intimate connections. Between God and the individual. We are linked by faith. We are linked by grace in the communion of saints.
Yes, absolutely. And there is a hierarchy. And nobody is the same. And there are some people who are stronger and some who are weaker. Some who are better. Some who are worse. Some for whom some virtues are easier. And for others, those same virtues are very difficult. It's a whole myriad. Of conditions. But the sum total of what binds us all together is one simple thing. God, in all of his love, has given us the opportunity of having faith. That is it. And we don't need any other. It does not matter what the other person is doing or going through. What matters is are we responding to the other person. The faith and the grace according to our situation.
We live in a world where narcissism has become the norm. And one of the biggest reasons for this is modernism. Modernism is a heresy born of narcissism. Pure, absolute, unadulterated narcissism. Because its root cause is the divine eminence. Where quite literally we create God through our religious system. Through our zeal and enthusiasm. We shape God into our version of what God should be. And the fact that this heresy has been proliferating throughout the modern church. And throughout the world for the last 120 plus years. Means that there is a real problem with the here and the now. We are each and every one of us children of this world of narcissists. Which means, guess what? We all have some of that ourselves. And it becomes very easy for us to blame the rest of the world.
And to point fingers at all the other problems all around us. And to play the victim about why we can't get ahead. Why we can't be virtuous. I got angry. Because some jerk cut me off. Well, you could have left out the second part. I'm just kidding. There's always a reason. And it's always almost always pointing the finger at somebody else. For why I behaved the way I behaved. Why I failed the way I failed. Why I sinned the way I sinned. It doesn't have anything to do with anybody else. We are not the saints we're supposed to be. And that is the problem. Why are we not saints yet? It is because we do not live the love of God. As we should yet. Yet. We have not fully surrendered to his love. Yet. We have not accepted him and him alone as the only reason why we are here and any of the good that we do.
Yet. How do we get to that point? There's always going to be two points that we need to look at. And by the way, I am recommending this for Lenten resolutions. The first is we have to eliminate the negative. Stop looking around. I don't care if it's during Mass. I don't care if it's in the world. I don't care if it's the news. I don't care if it's social media. Stop looking around. Stop looking and focusing on everybody else. And everything else. The political world is a mess. It's going to be a mess for a long time yet. You're not going to miss anything. Stop looking at it. Stop spending so much time on it. The situation in the church is a mess. Stop distracting yourself with it. Focus on this little chapel, your little soul, and that's that. Everything else that is going wrong with our families and everything that is going wrong with everything else, stop focusing so much on that. If it becomes a distraction or a problem, get rid of it. Focus on the most essential part. So first and foremost, reduce, drastically reduce the amount of outside noise and contamination that we have running through our minds. And most specifically, cut down on technology. That is the source of so much of the noise. Reduce how much dependence we have on the news and entertainment that the world provides.
That is something we need to focus on, and I will tell you a little about this in the capacity to tell you what we can allसrio. We're ultimately leaving today and we'll come back with a self Przy -, but hopefully as a broader series and duration, thisAK 1960 will make everything better. Best practices will humble all of our senses towards ourselves again. Optimism basically suddenly works for other of our family members, whether that be getting food or maladiatric GlobalListen .com. Li. I think in fact, I've seen an amount like this being able that's the first recommendation the negative aspect to relieve us of something that is a burden and that can be those thorns that choke the faith out of our soul or and then also i should say the second thing is a positive aspect really work on taking advantage of that exterior silence that i encouraged to just now to focus on the interior silence really work on a daily meditation every day 15 minutes of silence not just the outside silence but the inside silence where we quiet all those voices and all that noise and all the preoccupations and annoyances and frustrations and worries and everything else and just brush them aside keep brushing them aside as distractions nothing else and dig deep into the very core of your being love as they say in latin the the the very guts of who you are the heart of hearts which is where god is waiting god in his grace is not violent he is not going to take us over violently and force us to accept his love he comes to us willingly and lovingly but then he sits there waiting patiently for us to accept him Xinmei identifying this is a very deep desire it's a deep desire and it's a to actually come and listen to what he has to say. That is what grace is. He is there in the very essence of who we are.
He has elevated us to his adopted childhood, but now we need to accept to listen to him. But in order for that to happen, we have to get through all that noise. Think of it as drilling for water. Here, you dig five feet and you found it. But where I grew up in Colorado, you'd have to dig for about 900 feet before you could find any sort of underwater reservoir, sometimes a lot more. You have to just keep digging deeper until you find that well, until you're able to find what you need, which is the voice of God. He's always speaking, and he's always waiting for us to listen. But we need to find the internal silence to actually listen to him. And instead of coming up to him with a list of demands, just expecting for him to fall into line with what we want, leave all of that at the door. Create a little sanctuary if it helps. St. Therese describes building a little tabernacle or an altar in our hearts and in our imaginations so that we have a place to go, a quiet place where we can attend our Lord and his presence in our soul. Whatever it takes, find silence in your soul. Find it, take advantage of it, grow it. Make sure that you cultivate it so that it starts to take hold within your soul. That is the seed that God has given to you, but now it must be cultivated, which means we must not only remove all the distractions and all the weeds, but we must also take good care that we are making sure that the seed can grow.
By listening to that silence, by listening to that silence, by listening to his voice, by cultivating that silence, it can grow freely and it can start to take over our entire being. But those two things, one, the silence from the outside, getting rid of that technology and all the noise that it brings with us, and on the other hand, actually letting ourselves 15, 20, 30 minutes a day really focus on just silently letting Christ speak to us in our very heart. Those two things will transform our lives and these are the two points and the two principles by which we must learn to live. Exterior and internal silence. Those are the two things which will transform us into the good Catholics we are supposed to be. Not caring about anything or anyone else. Not crying over the victimhood that we suffer. Not worrying about what other people are doing or not doing. Not comparing ourselves to their penances or how much anybody else is living up to those penances or whatever else. Nothing. Nothing else matters. Just that simple silence and that intimate connection with God is all that we need to be able to grow in grace or rather, let the grace grow within us so that we will be taken over by it and every part of our life will be consumed by grace and by the very love of God and we will start to see him in every aspect of our lives and sanctity becomes so much simpler then. But this is a challenge that we must face.
So in the 10 days, the 10 days that we have before Lent starts, let's think about how we are going to accomplish this. Let's consider those two proposals. What it means as a penance, what it means simply to pray better, pray cleaner, to be able to revive our spiritual life, to reduce the thorns and the weeds that are there to choke our spiritual life so that we may be able to flourish in the spiritual life and grow in grace and let grace grow within us so that we can be dominated by it. And our life transformed by it. By doing so, we can become better Catholics and hopefully one day eternally happy with him in heaven.