Preparing for the Paschal Mystery

The Lenten season is not merely a time for us to seek our own purification from sin and transformation from sin. It is also a preparation to celebrate the Paschal Mystery. We are preparing ourselves to celebrate in the best manner possible these mysteries of our salvation: the Passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus.

Father Mark Baron, MIC, reflects on this essential truth about Lent. Too often, we reduce the season to personal sacrifice alone. We focus on what we give up, what we endure, what we deny ourselves. But Lent has a deeper purpose. It is preparation for Easter. It is preparation for the hour of Jesus.

In other words, we are preparing ourselves to celebrate those events that constitute the hour of Jesus. This is not merely historical remembrance. It is present participation in the mystery of redemption. The Passion, death, and Resurrection are not distant events. They are the foundation of our faith, the source of our salvation, the promise of our own resurrection.

During the first part of Lent, we read about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We focus on our own conversion. We seek forgiveness. We work to bring about change in our hearts, away from sin and toward God. But now we enter the final part of Lent, where the Gospel readings speak of how Jesus was led to death.

We read about His conflict with religious leadership. We see the plots forming against Him. We witness the growing tension that will culminate at the Cross. This is not accidental. It is part of the divine plan. Jesus goes to the Cross freely. He lays down His life voluntarily. God chooses when He dies.

The Father has planned this from all eternity. Human beings are instruments in this divine drama. Some as instruments of death, some as instruments of faithfulness. But the hour belongs to God, not to man.

This preparation matters. We should not approach Easter casually. We cannot treat the Resurrection as an afterthought. We must prepare our hearts to receive the fullness of the mystery. We must enter into the sorrow of Good Friday so that we can truly rejoice on Easter Sunday.

Lent is a journey. It begins with self-examination. It moves toward the Cross. It ends in resurrection. This is the pattern of Christian life. We die to ourselves so that we may rise with Christ. We surrender our will so that we may share in His victory.