Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: Lenten observance as sharing in the victory of Christ

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Lenten observance as sharing in the victory of Christ

In the Office of Readings for today the 1st Sunday of Lent, we have a wonderful reminder from St Augustine that opens up the Gospel reading for us today (Mk 1:12-15). Our union with Christ in baptism has configured us to Christ and joined us to him, so then through him we participate in his life. He allowed himself to be tempted in the desert so as to give us an example of spiritual warefar and show us how to share in his victory over the dominion of sin and the devil.

This is the mystery that we are led into each year through the Holy Season of Lent. We enter into the desert, into the aridity of denial united in imitation of Christ so that we can truly celebrate the power of his Resurrection - not just as a historical even or something distant in the past. But as the new life we all already share in through baptism, so that in Christ (1 Peter 3:2-2) and with Christ we are more than conquerors, we are victorious in him (Romans :31-38) through the salvation he has won for us and offers to us every moment we are alive.

So rather than temptations, struggles and trials as times of difficulty and failure - St Augustine teaches us that these are moments of grace, moments of deeper conformity to Christ so that with him we can share in his victory over sin.

How often have we seen our temptations and trials as good things? This is something we need to retrain our mind to understand, this is part of the training and discipline of Lenten observance which is the real meaning of asceticism. Training with, and for Christ - united to him in his victory over sin.

1 comment:

AnonymousFebruary 18, 2024 at 4:44 PM
Lovely thanks 🙏 trials fortify
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Disclaimer

Please note. I am a Catholic layman, not a qualified theologian or philosopher. What I say and write here are my own personal thoughts and ideas, although I always try to conform my writings to the Magisterium of the Church.

I- with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the symbol of faith: namely,

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church--whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium--as divinely revealed and called for faith.

I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by that same church definitively with regard to teaching concerning faith or morals.

What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.