This coming Wednesday, March 1st is an important day in the life of our Church. It is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the forty day season of preparation for the celebration of Easter. For that reason, I would like to speak a little bit about Lent and its importance in the spiritual life of each one of us.
In the history of the Church, Lent began as that season when the Catechumens who were preparing for baptism would enter into their final stages of preparation before being baptized at Easter. In the first few centuries of the Church’s history, many adults prepared to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. However, as by the ninth and tenth centuries most adults were baptized, Lent became a season not just for baptism but also for the repentance of those Christians who were already baptized and would prepare for the renewal of their baptismal promises at Easter. This is also now what the majority of us are called to do in the approaching season of Lent. Because most of us are already baptized, Lent is a time for us to prepare to renew our baptismal promises by turning away from what prevents us from living our baptisms and being the people that God has called each one of us to be as a result of our baptisms. At Easter, our community will celebrate the baptisms of those joining the Church at Easter, but each one of us is also called to renew our baptismal promises at the Easter Sunday Mass that we will attend this year. For that reason, I would like to say just a few words about what it means for each of us to be baptized.
When we were baptized, each of us were freed from original sin and all of the sins that we and committed before baptism were forgiven. Through baptism we each received the Holy Spirit and were made members of Christ’s holy people, called to share in Christ’s priestly, prophetic and kingly mission. The prayer for the anointing after baptism makes powerfully clear what this entails, as it states:
“God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin, given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into his holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.”
This prayer declares that each Christian is called to share in Christ’s priestly, prophetic and kingly mission. Every Christian is called to share in Christ’s priesthood by offering sacrifices of love in their lives in imitation of Christ’s sacrifice to save all people. The baptized person is called to share in Christ’s prophetic mission by speaking and witnessing to Christ’s presence in their lives. Christians are also called to build the Kingdom of God by working for right and just relations in the world.
Now a word that I have used repeatedly throughout this explanation of baptism and Lent is the word “called.” In Latin, the word “called” is formed from the verb “vocare,” which means “to call.” From this word comes the word “vocation.” A few months ago, the parish council was discussing the Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan and our parish’s efforts to foster and encourage vocations. It became obvious through the conversation that the majority of the people on the parish council thought that a vocation was something that only belonged to a priest, brother, religious sister or deacon. For that reason, I thought it important to highlight the idea of vocations throughout the coming Lenten season. What I would like to emphasize this Lent is the reality that every baptized person has a vocation. What this simply means is that every baptized person is called to respond to God’s call and personal love for him or her. There is a vocation to the single life, to the married life, to the priesthood, to the religious life for women and men and to the diaconate. With this in mind, I would like to suggest that this Lent should be for all of us a season of vocational awareness and renewal. As we prepare to renew our baptismal promises this Easter, I would invite each parishioner of St. Peter’s Church to examine his or her life to ask themselves how faithfully they are living out their vocations. How well are you and I responding to our vocation as a single person, religious man or woman, married person, priest, widow or separated person? Is there something distracting us from giving ourselves fully to God through our vocations? These distractions, and those things that prevent us from living our vocations fully, are the things that we are called to turn away from during the season of Lent.
As this Sunday’s readings remind us, none of us can serve two masters: we will either hate the one or despise the second. As Christians, our first priority is to serve Jesus through our vocational responses. A married person is to make his or her spouse and family the focus of his or her vocational response. Everything that we do is to be ordered according to our vocation in life. We are not to be distracted by anxiety and concern about minor and secondary worries. We are God’s children and He loves us unconditionally and will provide for all that we ultimately need and require.
Throughout the coming Lenten season, there will be many different ways that we can all prepare to renew our baptismal promises at Easter and embrace the call of Christ that we have received in our baptisms. On Ash Wednesday, we may all begin our Lenten preparations by receiving ashes and hearing the Lenten invitation to “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel,” as the ashes are imposed on our foreheads. Every Friday during Lent the parish will pray the Stations of the Cross to remember all that Christ has done for us through His passion and suffering. There will be many opportunities to go to Confession during Lent, especially on our parish’s Day of Confessions on Saturday, April 1, 2017. On that day, Confessions will be heard from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.. During this Lenten season, the parish will have a retreat on the evenings of April 4,5,6 with Father Zachary Romanowsky from Madonna House. The theme of this retreat will be the call given to every Christian to live our vocations in the ordinary events of our lives. Another very important way in which we respond to God’s call in our lives is by acts of almsgiving which allow the entire Christian community to continue Christ’s saving work in our world. This is why the Archdiocesan ShareLife campaign always begins and takes place during Lent. Through SharefLife our parishioners can contribute to the work of Covenant House as it provides shelter to homeless youth in our city; to Catholic Family Services as it serves families in crisis around Toronto; and to the Office of Refugees for the Archdiocese of Toronto as it supports refugees as they come to our country from broken and difficult places. ShareLife is the Archdiocesan campaign that allows all of us in our busy lives to contribute to the local Church’s efforts to make Christ present in our city. I hope everyone in our parish will consider donating generously this Lent to ShareLife as part of their vocational response to God’s love for each of us.
This Lent, as each of us prepares to renew our baptismal promises this Easter, I invite every parishioner of St. Peter’s Church to consider his or her vocational response to Christ. Through baptism we are called to follow Christ. Each one of us has a vocation. Lent is the time to remove those obstacles and distractions which prevent us from living our vocations and the call to follow Christ. We are to turn away from those things we have allowed to become the false masters in our lives and strive to make Christ our true master; confident that he alone can provide for what we truly need. During this Lenten season, may we all recognize that we each have a vocation to follow Christ in our lives, and pray for the graces to turn away from what prevents us from hearing His call, as we prepare to renew our baptismal promises this Easter.
May God bless each of us with a grace-filled Lent.
Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor—St. Peter’s Parish—Toronto
