Church of Saint Isidore

Over 3200 years ago the Israelites were freed from Egyptian rule.  After God called Moses to lead his people, and performing several plagues, the Israelites were liberated and began their journey to the promised land. Despite their physical freedom from the Egyptians, the Israelites were still enslaved, not by physical bondage, but by a spiritual kind.  

This spiritual bondage was carried out with them from Egypt going into the Sinai Desert. When Moses left the Israelites to be with God at the top of Mount Sinai they fell back into pagan practices, constructing an idol of gold and worshipping it. As they travelled the desert they complained about the lack of sufficient food and water, faltering in their faith, and even afterwards asking for more in terms of meat to eat. Despite being led physically to freedom, the Israelites were still suffering under the spiritual laziness they acquired while in Egypt.  

How different are we from the ancient Israelites? We have all the comforts one could want, certainly comforts those ancient Israelites would have chosen over wandering the Sinai Desert in what felt like a futile pursuit of the “promised land”. Yet are we any freer from those spiritual chains that the Israelites were also subject to? How often do we choose something other than God? Prayer, which is the turning of one’s mind towards God, is the simplest, and one of the most important parts of the spiritual life. Yet here we are, in an age of noise, where all our senses are constantly in demand from one thing or another.  Whether it be our phones and social media demanding our attention, or the noisiness of going to business or shops that constantly blare music, or driving with the radio on, or seeing advertisements everywhere, our attention is being demanded of us by everyone, and it is up to us to remember to give our first and best attention to God alone.  

This is less dramatic than the Israelites who were still overcoming debauched pagan rituals and complacency while indentured in Egypt. Yet it keeps us away from God all the same. Before the Israelites could enter the promised land, they had to free themselves from the spiritual entanglement they were in. They approached the promised land once, and through fear of losing to those that already dwelled in the land, abandoned hope, and despite being assured of their victory, failed to trust in God.  And so, they wandered for forty years in a purgative state of being, and only after those who had known Egypt were gone from the world were the Israelites disposed enough to enter the promised land. 

It would be one thing to have to exist in such a state for forty years, but to do so and then die before entering the promised land is another. For us we are blessed, for we do not need to wander for forty years, and the promised land we desire is not of this world. But we still do need something to help us shirk off the oppression of acedia, or lust, or pride, or envy, or whatever it is that binds us.  

After his baptism in the river Jordan, Jesus went away for forty days to pray and fast in the wilderness. There he was tempted thrice by Satan and thrice he overcame him. At some point later, as recounted in the Gospel According to Mark, Jesus heals a man’s son after the disciples failed to do so. When he explained why they had failed, he simply said, “these can only come out through prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29). And here is what we are getting to: prayer and fasting are necessary for our spiritual well-being, and we have Jesus himself explicitly partaking in a forty day fast.  Here we have the basis for Lent. And this is why we do it, not just to unite ourselves to Jesus’s own suffering, or to experience a mini-version of what the Israelites went through, but rather to remove from our lives those things that distract us from God, or that fill us with desire of worldly goods and pleasure instead of divine ones. It is a time of emptying from our lives those things that keep us ensnared by sin, and to be refilled with trust and hope in the Lord and his promises. For unlike the Israelites who had to die off before the rest could enter the promised land, we have hope in the resurrection which we celebrate at the end of the Lenten season with the Paschal mystery, and the glory that is to come in the heavenly promised land.  

There is a third part that the Church asks us to give particular attention to during Lent: almsgiving. Where fasting is focused on the self, and prayer on God, almsgiving is focused on the other. It is an act of mercy, in whichever form one chooses to partake in, towards those to whom we can and ought to show mercy towards. Common practices are giving to food pantries, or volunteering at soup kitchens, you could also give to the Church more or to a cause you have a particular affinity for that also does charitable works. What is significant about almsgiving is how much the Lord cares for it.  In Proverbs 19:17, it is said that he who shows mercy [almsgiving] to the poor, makes God indebted to them. Imagine that: God owing you something. This is of course not a loophole to bind God to do what you want in return for charitable giving, but rather an emphasis on the importance of showing mercy/giving alms. It is an often-overlooked part of Lent, but its implications are staggering. God has shown us how to pray and how to fast, and he has also shown us mercy so that we too may be merciful. 

These three things – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving – should be guidelines for how to approach Lent, but the goal is not self-satisfaction, or finally fixing your diet, but rather to empty yourself of earthly distractions and delights, and to reorient your mind towards God, and to be a witness of his mercy to others.  

May God bless you on this Lenten journey.