From gloom to bloom

There's, of course, as aspect of gloom to Lent. That's understandable, since the season reminds us of our sinfulness, our weaknesses and temptations, and the need to struggle, to be patient, to suffer, etc.

But it's a gloom that leads us to the bloom of Easter, the suffering that purifies and strengthens us, giving us another rebirth and making us grow to Christian maturity where love and goodness prevail.

We should look at things from a higher point of view, from a wider perspective that gives due consideration to the inputs of faith and the eternal truths, etc., to be able to get a better picture.

The victory of Christ's resurrection, celebrated on Easter, gives full meaning to the suffering of Christ's cross that we are asked to share.

Our problem is the usual tendency to see things externally and superficially only, and to give knee-jerk reactions to events. We fail to connect the two.

The road from gloom to bloom, from Lent to Easter, from darkness to light, from death to life, has been built for us by Christ through his words and deeds, through his whole redemptive life here on earth that was filled with precious lessons for us.

This road has been perfected, has been given the finishing touches and polish with his passion, death and resurrection that comprise what is now known as the Paschal or Easter mystery.

It's the mystery that summarizes the whole redemptive work of Christ and is applied to us through the sacraments, especially the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. This is, of course, a truth of faith that we accept not because we understand it, but more because it is taught to us by Christ, who cannot deceive nor be deceived by us.

This sacrament, seen under its three aspects as spiritual food (Holy Communion), supreme sacrifice (Holy Mass), and divine presence (Blessed Sacrament), makes this Paschal mystery present, and not only remembered in the usual manner we understand by the word, remember.

We need to work out our thinking, attitudes and feelings so as to capture this wonderful reality that we often take for granted. That's why, we need to pray, meditate, study, develop the appropriate virtues, fight against our weaknesses and temptations, etc.

But one sacrament with its corresponding and underlying virtue that is indispensable for this effort is the sacrament of penance or reconciliation. It enables us to be born again, to regain our state of grace after we have lost it through sin.

The sacrament presumes and always requires the virtue of penance which is none other than the abiding acknowledgement of our sinfulness and the urge to go back to Christ by way of acts of penance, the highest form of which is by availing of the sacrament of penance or confession.

Especially these days when the sense of sin is slowly being eroded by all sorts of anti-Christian if not anti-human ideologies with their corresponding lifestyles, we need to bring to the fore the importance of both the virtue and the sacrament of penance.

Of course, to recover the proper understanding and attitude toward penance, we need to go back to Christ, to have faith, to be simple and humble enough to realize that Christ is the fullness of the revelation of God who is our creator and everything to us.

Only through him would we know what is sin and what is not. Without him, we will just be guided by our natural self that, as we already know, is quite wounded and handicapped by sin itself. Its estimation of what is good and evil is at best tentative and many times confused if not wrong.

To recover the proper understanding and attitude toward penance, we need to heed the teaching of the Church that has been endowed by Christ with the full authority to keep and transmit the deposit of faith in its integrity infallibly.

The virtue of penance also involves the need for self-denial, restraint and moderation in the use of things, especially those that give us the utmost comfort and pleasure, like food, drinks, fun, and other sensual delights, especially the direct use of our human sexuality.

It is in this area that we should try to be most generous in abstaining and fasting, because they go a long way in building up our proper understanding of penance. Let's remember what Christ said: “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Lk 6,38)

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