La Cuaresma 2022 amid war and pandemic

We begin by joining in solidarity with all peoples and nations around the world who are giving their moral support to the citizens and country of Ukraine, as well as to all in the Eastern European region who are suffering from the infliction of war against them by President Vladimir Putin of Russia. We are in both an “unholy” and a “holy” season.

March 2 was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, when perhaps 2 billion Christian devotees in the world were marked with burnt palm ashes on their foreheads in the shape of a cross as a sign of humility, mortality and of repentance for the wrongs that humankind perpetrates against itself and the ancient covenants between us and the Creator and Author of life.

Thus began the 40-day season of Lent. Profound hope is invoked here that those in the world who observe the Lenten season may be especially fortified and disposed toward this spiritual pilgrimage, which by faith and tradition leads to and culminates with the Holy Week of the Passion, the death on the Cross and the Resurrection of the one known in the world as the Christ.

Many humble and openhearted people are making the spiritual journey through Lent, an arduous path through the pitfalls and the real and symbolic minefields and the war-filled skies and the vicious agendas of the leaders of nations in the world, believing that this Lenten pilgrimage will make a positive difference as part of a spiritual odyssey — thousands of years old — through the interminable heartless wastelands that certain others have made of this good world, which is unique in the vast universe.

Here in our country of “El Nórte,” Lent has traditionally meant dedicating special time and effort for reflection, prayer, fasting, penance, reconciliation and as a time for extraordinary acts of charity and alms-giving, and for spiritual and corporal acts of mercy toward others, including strangers and even enemies.

In El Nórte, traditional Lenten devotional customs are unique and meaningful, often based on and drawing from the Spanish heritage and language and other characteristic cultural and historic roots; in certain ways this season also involves indigenous Native American spirituality, as well as natural and supernatural and seasonal elements.

Now in Lent 2022, our world is still beset with tribulations, outrageous and gratuitous violence between peoples and nations, with always yet another conflict on the horizon, the cynical killing and sacrificing of thousands of people, especially the most innocent and powerless, to a primordial, implacable and inimical entity that has been at odds against humanity for ages and that often works from within the people themselves.

And now, even the normal human mayhem and unrest is exacerbated by the COVID-19 virus and its variants, the viral pandemic that is invisibly and lethally spreading and multiplying through all of humanity in every part of the world, taxing our most clever, ingenious, desperate and inventive efforts and resources to defeat it.

But yet, even in the midst of this titanic conflict which has assumed sophisticated and technological forms that seemingly can move at the speed of light in lethality, it is now also the opportunity for the heart of humankind to triumph.

Now, from El Nórte and elsewhere, this Lenten pilgrimage can be the time for the greatest agape lovers in the world to raise us all up, to overcome the blandishments and bloody illusions of the world, to transcend what has possessed and afflicted humankind.

It can be the time, and many might say “now or never,” for the peace and the charitable order and the healing, among and within humankind. And we call upon our hermanos and hermanas and sincere-hearted peregrinos in La Cuaresma 2022 to raise their good and healing bendición, on behalf of our presently imperiled world.