Lent is here — and we need it more than ever

Lent? Again? Really? Catholics of various stripes — including the fallen away, the alienated, the angry, the indifferent and the earnest —may be wondering why the Church is still marking the season of Lent at this late date in our secular culture.

We do need Lent — we need it more than ever — and we need it better than ever.

If the question we are really asking is, “Do we need another Lent that is a season of self-improvement that turns fasting into dieting, prayer into a chore and joy into a sin?” — then, no, we surely do not need another Lent.

If the question we are really asking is, “If the season of Lent is a preparation for the life of Easter, then how shall we live?” — then, yes, we surely need another Lent. And the way to live such a Lent is a way of compassion. Such a way of compassion certainly does not preclude the traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, but it does put them into a new and better context.

Let’s distinguish authentic Christian compassion from pity. At its best, pity is an emotional response to another’s suffering. At its worst, pity is (wittingly or not) an act of condescension, expressed as, “Isn’t it regrettable that you are you?” True Christian compassion can be understood through the Latin roots of the word itself — cum-passio: “to suffer with.”

Christian compassion enters into a sympathetic and practical unity with one who suffers. Compassion is a voice and act of stubborn love, telling the sufferer, “You have an identity, dignity and destiny beyond this present darkness, a darkness that will not last. And I am ready to walk with you out of the darkness into the light, with and for the love of Christ.”

To whom need we be especially ready to offer compassion during this season of Lent? Christ himself. One of the great Christian mysteries is that Christ, risen and victorious, is still to be found in this life as the Man of Sorrows. We would not be surprised that Christ the Man of Sorrows awaits our compassion as he suffers in the oppressed and in victims of violence. But would we be surprised to learn that Christ suffers and awaits our compassion within our own very selves?

Yes, Christ suffers in us, as we endure and even tolerate the pain that comes from loving any created thing more than we love God. Christ suffers in us as we reject our human dignity, and when we failed to cooperate with the life of grace that is a privilege of our Baptism.

This Lent, let’s choose to be free from whatever keeps us from responding compassionately to Christ the Man of Sorrows who is suffering within and among us. That compassion can be stifled by denial or scorn of our wounds, subverted by furtive attempts at self-medication through indulgence or addiction or obscured by the seductions of pride or selfpity. It can be blinded and shackled by indifference to those in pain or in hunger. Let’s act to become free from all those impediments to compassion, so that we might be free for unity with the compassionate Christ, who has already united himself to us. That is the kind of Lenten discipline we need, especially if we have never lived such a Lent before. Living a compassionate freedom during Lent, we can have a joy to celebrate at Easter that the world cannot give us and cannot take away from us.

Lent is a preparation for Easter; Easter a preparation for eternity. Let’s act accordingly.

Father Robert McTeigue, S.J. is a retired philosophy professor. A Catholic priest and Jesuit of the New England/Maryland Province, he is the author of “Real Philosophy for Real People and Christendom Lost and Found. ” His radio program is heard daily on The Catholic Current on 1060AM in Boston, 1230AM in Worcester, and 730AM in Springfield.