The Symbols Of Lent
by Rev. Michael Dogali
Each Sunday of Lent presents a different symbol to represent the theme of the Sunday Gospel. Symbols are designed to capture the various ideals that we will hear about week after week in this season of repentance.
First Week of Lent
The symbol for this week is a scale - symbol of temptation and good judgement. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert and overcame His trial by turning to the Word of God for His defense. In our own lives, we have to make difficult choices and we are forced to weigh very complex options as we strive to follow Christ. Because of our weaknesses, we often assign great value to less weighty matters and forget to tend to those matters which is essential to good, moral living. It is only by measuring our choices against the teaching of Jesus that we can understand what has true value and what does not. May we learn to value what is truly precious and in doing so, make the choices in our lives that will lead us to heaven.
Second Week of Lent
This week, our symbol is a white garment, a reminder of the transfiguration of Christ. Jesus appears before us today in radiant splendor, with all of the glory that is His own as God's only Son. What Christ is by nature, we are by adoption. The glory that rightly belongs to Him as the Son of God, we share through Him since we have become the Father's adopted children. Throughout the history of the Church, men and women of exceptional holiness have always reminded us of the power of grace at work in our world. The saints have served as examples for God's people and have inspired us to strive for sanctity, even in little things. Their lives have always called us to conversion and to change of heart. Each of us has been given a share of the Lord's grace. Each of us has been washed clean by the blood of Christ. Each of us may have turned away from the Lord who gently beckons us to return to Him in this holy season. During these forty days, take advantage of the reconciliation, and let the power of this healing sacrament make you whole. Let nothing keep you from the Lord who calls you to bear the mark of His mercy and forgiveness. Third week of Lent Our symbol is the spring of living water. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that anyone who shares in the life-giving water that He gives will never thirst again. Instead, this living water (the Holy Spirit of God) will become a fountain within those who have received Him. We have received a share of this life-giving stream by our baptism. The more perfectly we strive to live out our baptismal promises-rejecting Satan, sin and the glamour of evil-the more copiously will that spring of living water flow within us. Let us never forget that when we are thirsting for the presence of God, when we are in need of the comfort and refreshment that comes from Him alone. The contrite heart can always find Christ. Jesus bestows all that we require when we turn to Him, for in turning to him, everything is satisfied. Let us go to the water and be refreshed.
Fourth Week of Lent
This week, our symbol is the light of the world. Light - a simple symbol, but specially chosen to remind us of the dignity and responsibility that is ours by reason of our baptism. The light of faith was given to us when we received baptism, and we were encouraged to live in that light, reflecting it to the whole world. By design, it is meant to be shared. The story of the man born blind is the story of one who has come to see the Lord Jesus as the light that illumines the meaning of human life and God's plan of redemption. The blind man is given the gift of seeing the Lord, and of seeing in Him the fulfillment of God's promise of salvation. The man's life will never again be the same. Sometimes we are so accustomed to looking upon the sacred, that we fail to see the power and the mysteries that are on display before our eyes. We see the symbol of the crucifix so often that the horror that it portrays can hardly move us. We may be so accustomed to attending Mass, we are hardly aware that the Last Supper is the event in which we share. We are so programmed to get in line when the time for Communion comes, that we often do not remember the Lord whose flesh we are receiving. During this season of Lent, let our eyes be opened; let us see the Lord who reaches out to us through the sacred signs around us and the sacred presence within. Let us look for the Lord, and pray that we may see Him, just as the blind man did.
Fifth Week of Lent
When Lazarus was placed in the tomb, his body was prepared for burial in the customary way, by being wrapped in burial linens. When Jesus called Lazarus forth from the tomb, he ordered the people who watched the miracle, "Untie him, and let him go free." The linen strips, which fell from the body of Lazarus, are symbols of the bonds of death, the bonds, which Christ has broken. They symbolize all that binds us, all that limits us, all from which we need to be saved. And just as Christ freed Lazarus from these linen shackles, so too does he set us free from whatever holds us captive. Christ came that we might have life, and have it to the fullest. Let us look to Him now, and trust in His power to save us from all that threatens to bind us.