(Lenten Message to the Priests, Religious and Faithful of the Diocese of Sokoto by His Lordship, Bishop Matthew Hassan KUKAH)
Each of the Church’s major feasts appeals to our emotions differently. For example, whereas the thought of Christmas and Easter throw us into festive mood, Lent tends to make our heads droop. We think of the Ashes, Penance, Fasting, Prayers and Devotions, Sacrifice, Abstinence etc. Thus, the excitement of Christmas or Easter make us beckon on the dates, Lent keeps us looking at the calendar, anxious for when it will end so we can start living again.
This kind of thinking exposes us to a mindset that is quite dangerous to our faith and spiritual development. We think we can dress or behave differently for different times only to lapse back again or that there are times when we can be serious about prayer and other times when we can relax. We have only different exercises aimed at achieving the same purpose of union with God.
It is dangerous to see our faith and our lives as Christians as being reduced to phases. Paul has enjoined us to pray without ceasing and to always rejoice in the Lord (1 Thes. 5:16). Therefore, all these seasons are calculated to present us with a seamless view of our faith and lives as Christians. To understand this properly, I wish, with St. Paul to illustrate our point with the image of the sports arena and sportsmen and women.
Our weekends are marked by the Time-table of the various local or international Football Leagues. We all have our favourite clubs and players. We all turn on our television sets to watch and marvel at the incredible display of skills and tactics.
We watch happily as goals are scored with what seem to us as little efforts.
However, how many of us ever pause to think about the nature of the training of these sportsmen and women engage in to achieve what we see as effortless goals? What is hidden from us all are the endless hours of sweat, high energy levels, sleep deprivation, mental toughness achieved through these physical and emotional preparations and endless days and nights of practice.
Those we see on the pitches are just an insignificant fraction of all those who practice and work equally hard, but fall below what is required to make the team, get injured or die trying. Every single athlete that we see, there are millions who fell by the way side. Success is the result of practice, practice, hard work, failure, correction and not giving up.
If we apply this image to ourselves, we can then appreciate why Lent is so important and fundamental to our spiritual life. We should therefore see Lent as our gymnasium for practice that should bring our spiritual bodies to shape. Parents, Priests, Catechists and other pastoral agents who assist us are like our coaches in the gymnasium of our spiritual formation.
If we listen and learn, if we practice the skills, and subject our bodies to the rigours of training, then we will reap the benefits. Our lives will, like the finesse of a well prepared and trained sportsman or women elicit excitement and appreciation of those whom we encounter. Just as an active sportsman or woman enjoys good health from physical practice and discipline, just as practice make their victories look easy and entertaining, so also will others enjoy our effortless love if we submit to the struggle for a better spiritual life.
Therefore, at this Lenten season, I enjoin you to take the following to heart.
First, we must keep ahead of us the sentiments of Ash-wednesday and let the thought of the transient nature of life, reminds us that all is vanity (Eccl. 1:1).
Second, the Catholic Church already has lined up many spiritual exercises associated with Lent. These include Masses, Stations of the Cross, Fasting, Abstinence, various devotions such as the Rosary, and other necessary means of bringing our bodies to submission (1 Cor. 9: 27). Practice makes perfect, so let take advantage of these special moments of grace and communion.
Third, apart from the community prayers and exercises, we must endeavour to personally look inwards. Identify and try to wrestle with some little demons such as selfishness, laziness, gossip, alcohol, etc,
Fourth, let us look closely at the challenge of neighbourliness and its demands. In these days of insecurity, it is tempting to be distrustful of strangers. There is too much hunger and suffering in the land, we know. It is tempting to feel that we too are suffering. Little acts of kindness are the greatest sermons in this period. Go out of your way to do something to make someone happy.
Fifth and finally, let us improve our prayer life and try harder, through visits to the Blessed Sacrament to ask God let His face shine upon us (Num. 6:24). With St. Paul, we say: I do not believe I have reached the goal, nor do I consider myself perfect but press on….my eyes are on the prizePhil 3:12). Or say, I run, knowing where I am going. I box, but not aimlessly in the air. I punish my body and control it. (1 Cor. 9: 24-26).
