Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

The student’s anxiety rises as time dwindles before his final exam. The arena holds its breath as the Stanley Cup final goes into double overtime. The hands of the pastry chef shake as he finishes piping an expensive wedding cake. If an end is near, a final stage marked with heightened intensity precedes it. The student crams. The hockey teams exhaust their strength. The pastry chef refocuses his attention. The stakes are higher, spurring on a newfound eagerness and anticipation.

 In the life of Christ, the events of Holy Week are this time of final intensity. Jesus’ early years were marked by the hidden simplicity of familial life. His public ministry built anticipation as Calvary drew near. Then at long last His final moments arrived, whereby He poured Himself out entirely in agonized suffering to win the victory of salvation for all mankind.

As we begin this fourth week of Lent, we are nearing the final stretch of our journey towards Holy Week. The Church reminds us of this in this Sunday’s collect, calling us to intensify our gaze upon Christ with renewed zeal as we prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery:

“…grant, we pray,
that with prompt devotion and eager faith
the Christian people may hasten
towards the solemn celebrations to come.”

How do we “hasten” towards Holy Week? Perhaps one way is to reflect upon what these “solemn celebrations” reveal to us about our own place in the story of salvation, so that when Holy Week arrives, we are prepared to participate more fully in the liturgy.

Just as so many tasks have gradual beginnings marked with more intense endings, so too has God’s plan of salvation unfolded. From the celebration of the Passover to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and all therein, God has gifted mankind with rituals aligned to how close we are to the finale of His glorious plan for us. These traditions have enabled people to glorify God in a manner proportionate to their ability, progressively drawing mankind into deeper friendship with God.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the ritual God has given to us for our present time: the final chapter in the story of salvation. It follows that while the Mass immerses us into all of salvation history, it explicitly makes present the sacrifice which culminated Christ’s earthly life.

As Christians chosen to live in this final age, we are called to become saints…intense saints. But to do this, we need help proportionate to the intensity of the call. The Mass is a privileged place where we receive this help, for it is here that we enter into Christ’s Passion and receive the very graces that flowed from the Cross. By uniting our sufferings to Christ’s sacrifice made present on the altar, our own crosses are transformed into realities that sanctify us.

No matter how wonderful or terrible your Lent has been thus far, the Church calls you to simply keep on going. Go to Mass, ask God for the grace to enter into His Passion with “prompt devotion” and “eager faith,” and become the saint you are called to be. Here it is that we receive the grace to persevere in holiness and find an unfathomably great joy: a foretaste of heaven in the midst of the Passion.