With Ash Wednesday this week marking the beginning of Lent, ARCHBISHOP JOHN BATHERSBY of Brisbane has issued this 2011 Lenten pastoral letter to be read or broadcast at Masses around the archdiocese this weekend
WE are approaching the great season of Lent provided by the Church to remind us of our faith, and if possible deepen it.
Like Christmas and Easter, the Church gives us time to prepare for all its seasons. Advent prepares us for Christmas, and Lent for Easter.
At the present time the Catholic Church continues to grow throughout the world, its membership now greater than a billion people.
Sadly however, although our numbers grow strongly in Africa and South America they do not always increase in our rather secular Western world.
Pope Benedict XVI is aware of this and has challenged the Catholic Church to seek in every way possible to evangelise Christians who may have drifted away from the Church, or people who have never had the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, communicated through the Church and scripture.
Too often we forget the sheer blessing that God gives us in this precious season of Lent.
In the long history of the Church, Lent was introduced by the Council of Nicea in 325, 40 days before Easter.
The time chosen seems to have been based on the 40 fasting days of Moses, Elijah and especially Jesus.
It was a time not only of fasting, but also of prayer, and of giving alms to the poor when possible. Its overall task was to make all of us holy so that we can understand and celebrate the great feast of Easter that is quickly approaching.
One of the greatest gifts of Lent is deepening our faith, perhaps by saving money for those people who suffered badly in recent floods, perhaps by giving money to Caritas for the poor people of the world, perhaps participating in one of the prayer groups e.g. “Heart to Heart” prepared for Lent, or simply celebrating Mass more frequently than we normally do.
Until we meet God face to face we will have no idea of the precious gift of the Mass that we too often take for granted. Mass is the re-presentation of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We cannot possibly celebrate Mass attentively without becoming better people because of it.
We meet Jesus in many different ways, but Mass is the supreme meeting place.
We must never take for granted the magnificent gift of the Eucharist that Jesus gave to us before His death and resurrection.
In our somewhat secular world today it is so easy to drift away from the faith. Belief is too precious to be regarded as just a minor part of life.
As I grow older I have never been more conscious that life is a gift of God and that we must treasure each loving moment.
Recently I was delighted to speak with Anglican Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, the Uniting Church’s Queensland Moderator Bruce Johnson and the leaders of the Baptist and Lutheran Churches in order to proclaim together our faith in Jesus Christ.
We began to do so at Sippy Downs, on the Sunshine Coast, in front of an audience of 500 people from different churches.
Moderator Bruce Johnson courageously and effectively told us all how he had abandoned the Church in the early years of his life until God called him back into faith.
His words must have touched a multitude of people because it is so easy to drift from the Church today.
It is up to us to evangelise ourselves in the first place by knowing our faith, and then by doing so to help other people by our friendship and knowledge.
Helping people come back to the Church doesn’t mean in-your-face evangelisation but it does mean using our faith wherever possible to tell people just how marvellous faith has been, and still is for us.
I hope that Lent 2011 will be a special time for all people who love God or are searching for God.
Faith is too good to overlook, as Jesus said in John 10:10 “I have come to bring you life and life in its fullness.”
Being faith-filled people doesn’t make us miserable.
It helps us rejoice in life despite the crosses we have to carry.
Please God the Holy Spirit will help us experience fullness of life in Lent, while Mary, the mother of Jesus, will pray in a special way for us at this time so that we can understand her Son even more deeply.
May God bless you all.
