Exiit qui seminar - LENT
Death and the Resurrection
Normally this article would be the perfect opportunity to talk about the season of Lent and perhaps a unique aspect of the liturgical season that would deserve further reflection, but I'm struggling. On Sunday evening, February the 14th, Rosa, the longtime cook at the rectory, went home to the Lord after a brief illness. As a priest, it is often easy to have a level of professional detachment when it comes to funerals and death, because it's your "job" to be Christ to a family who is grieving and in pain. It's another thing altogether when it is a member of your own "family" and to say that I (as well as the rest of the staff) am heartbroken is an understatement. I have been profoundly affected by her death and now have to learn how to be Christ to Rosa's family and friends, my staff and even myself as we grieve. In the midst of the jumble of mixed emotions, I keep coming back to what Lent means - not the season, but the word itself. The word Lent has its origins in Old English. Unlike other languages (including Latin) which describe this time simply as "forty days", Lent is translated as "Spring". And as I am confronted with the reality and the pain of death, my thoughts turn to Spring. Winter is vivid in its starkness. Light diminishes and at times the darkness seems like it will never end. The world appears to be devoid of life. But the world is not dead, but dormant. For just as Christ has conquered sin and death for us all in general, He has also done so for us individually and particularly. Death makes no sense to us as a people of faith without our eyes focused on the Resurrection. As we come face to face with death, we long for the glory of eternal life. That is what this holy season is about - we confront how sin and death have affected our lives and we strive to enter into conversion - to have our hearts, minds and souls focused on our Lord and the promise that He won for us through His Passion and the Cross. I will miss Rosa very much, but I have hope that she and all the faithful departed, are not truly dead but in the arms of our loving Lord and Savior. That is what Lent really means. As our Lord often writes straight with the crooked lines of our lives, He has shown us and all of creation that through Rosa's death, through the deaths of our loved ones, and through His death that our faith allows us to peer through the darkness of winter and hold on with both hands the brightness of the eternal Spring.
Sincerely yours in Christ
Fr. Robert Sinatra
