This year, the month of March presents us with three liturgical seasons. These three seasons are all related to each other, but they are distinct. For the majority of the month, we continue to celebrate the great penitential season of Lent; then from Holy Thursday through Holy Saturday, March 28 to March 30, we celebrate the Paschal Triduum. Then, on March 31, we celebrate Easter Sunday and, with this solemnity, we begin the joyous Easter Season which ends with the solemnity of Pentecost.
So, this March is a very busy and important month for all of us spiritually. What we had begun on Ash Wednesday, we should be faithfully doing each day. When we received those blessed ashes on our foreheads and heard the call of the Church to repent and be faithful because our lives are not our own but come from and belong to God, what did we do?
What has been our response to rid ourselves of sin and its effects on our lives? Have we committed ourselves to daily prayer? Have we decided to participate at Mass each day of Lent? Have we chosen to be charitable to others and perform good works of corporal and spiritual mercy? Have we taken on a real penance in Lent and deprived ourselves of something we want or need?
Those blessed ashes we received mark us as Catholics who are serious about obeying the Lord’s call to repent and believe. This is how we begin and live the season of Lent which is a time of tremendous grace for us. Lent leads us to Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum, the holiest days of our year and they should be the holiest days of our lives. To be faithful to Jesus during Lent prepares us to be faithful to Him beyond Lent and beyond the Easter season.
Lent is meant to help us understand better that to follow Jesus we must walk the Way of the Cross and do so with resolve and courage. Lent helps us understand better why Jesus reveals to us that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that if we want to go to heaven following Him is the only way.
May this month be a time of great grace and consolation for us. The last day of this month is the day of Easter. It is the day of the Lord’s Resurrection which is the day of our salvation. Have a most blessed and happy Easter and Easter season!