Remember, O Thou Man - Lenten Reflections on Hope and the Four Last Things

Well, we are officially in the season of Lent, a time of penance; prayer, abstinence, fasting, and almsgiving.  Those things can sound sort of somber but believe it or not I'm usually very excited and happy when Lent kicks off!  Every year I forget how helpful Lent can be in my spiritual life until it comes around again.  This season really continues the work of Advent and Christmas in my soul bringing the cycle to completion at Easter.  So first off in this post, I'll explain the justification I found for my happiness and secondly, I want to talk about the hard-hitting stuff.  This is the stuff I'm actually excited for even though it sounds extremely hard.  I'm hoping to tie it in to The Grim Writer's Lenten blog link-up (otherwise known as The Penance Party 😉) finishing up with meditating on the Four Last Things.

I don't think my joyful peace is entirely unfounded.  So far this Lent, I've been very blessed to be able to go to Mass quite a few times just in the first week.  Starting with Shrove Tuesday and the Feast of the Holy Face, Ash Wednesday, First Friday, First Saturday, and then the First Sunday in Lent, I was able to read and meditate upon the Propers of each Mass.  And you know what?  They are actually quite comforting and even hopeful!  On the First Sunday of Lent, the Propers center around the beginning of Psalm 90.  If you aren't familiar with it just by that name, let me help you out.  (Traddy raised kids, you might want to cover your ears; I don't want to scar you.)  NO raised kids, do you remember the hymn "On Eagles Wings"?  Yeah, that one.  Well, that hymn was loosely based on this Psalm.  Now most people may just read through this Psalm in the Tract rather quickly thinking that they've heard it countless times and if they were raised in the NO like I was, it may bring back some less-than-savory memories.  But this Sunday, I decided to read it slowly and carefully as the schola chanted through it.  I was surprised to find it very comforting and encouraging and not just in a flowery way.  It is encouraging me to put my trust in God this Lent through my penances, fasts, and hardships.  When we rely on Him, then He will give us His grace, support us, and protect us.  God doesn't promise that he will raise us up on eagles' wings to avoid adversity or suffering.  (In fact, wings like eagles' aren't even mentioned in this Psalm.  Go figure.)  But God does promise,

"Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name.  He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him."

~Psalm 90:14-15

Doesn't sound very "Lent-y" does it?  But the Church is an emotionally balanced entity and assures us there is hope even amidst the greatest suffering. 

We must place our hope in God (this means not abandoning ourselves to the depths of despair, no matter how romantic that sounds), we must know His Name.  To me, that sounds like keeping His Holy Name foremost in our minds and making it the subject of all our lives.  We should make all we do pleasing to His Holy Name and make reparation whenever we hear or see it blasphemed.  

St. Paul tells us in the Epistles of these first days of Lent how we are to live this way.  In the Gospels, especially the first Sunday's, Our Lord shows us how to live this way.  Most notable of His actions are that He loved us 

"Usque ad mortem et mortem ad crucem." 

 ...Even to death and to death on the cross.  (Credit to our priest who said this quote in his homily on Sunday.  I'm hoping I remembered the Latin correctly.)  We are called to love just as Christ loved us but how can we love "ad mortem" (to death) if we do not even contemplate our own death?  Have we ever questioned ourselves, "Do I love this person enough that I would be willing to die for them?"  This is a question I may have asked myself while in a courtship but honestly, it's a very good question to ask ourselves during Lent.  Do we love Our Lord enough that we would honestly die for Him?  Do we have what it takes to be martyrs?  It probably won't come to that for most of us, but we should still be prepared regardless because, as Our Lord tells us,

"Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

~John 15:13

And what more worthy or better friend do we have than Jesus?  It's one thing to think about and a whole other thing to actually do it.  But as Christians, there are actually two kinds of martyrdoms, red martyrdom and white martyrdom.  White martyrdom is, in short, the complete dying to self in all things.  (It could be argued that all Christians are called to white martyrdom in accord with their state in life.)

"Let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God... as dying, and behold we live..."

~ 2 Corinthians 6:4,9 

If we work on dying to ourselves and our passions every day, we can prepare ourselves for death.  If we live "as having nothing, and possessing all things," (2 Cor. 6:10) if we live with Heaven as our one and only goal, we will be unattached from the things of this world and better prepared for death.  Penance and mortification are the means by which we deny our passions, crucify 'self', and prepare for death.

St. Therese's "Little Way" is not only a good way to make ready to become the spouse of Jesus but also to prepare for death.

 But we can't just prepare to die and go straight to Heaven.  Most likely, we will die with at least temporal punishment still due for our sins, if not venial sins on our souls.  God forbid we die in the state of mortal sin.  So after death there is judgement, where we will stand before God and render an entire account of our lives.  We will be fully exposed and not one word of our life will be hidden from Divine Justice.  Meditating on your personal judgement seems even more fruitful in avoiding sin than meditation on death by itself.  The Church in Her goodness anticipates this and follows the theme of the four last things in the Propers of the Mass because Monday of the First Week in Lent uses Jesus' description of the last judgement for the Gospel reading.  Our Lord will say one of two things to us at that final judgement.  Either He will say,

"Amen I say to you: What you did for one of these, the least of My brethren, you did for Me: come, blessed of My Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Or He will say,

"As long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me.  Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels."

If we meditate on the words of Our Lord and make the everyday choices of our lives in light of what we would like Him to say to us, we can prepare ourselves for judgement.  Will we have a bouquet of charitable acts stored up to present to Our Lord at our judgement?  (We'll talk about this a little more later...)

Looking ahead in the missal, the Gospel selections also point our attention to Heaven and hell.  First, the veil between Heaven and Earth is pulled aside in the account of the Transfiguration.  Both God the Father and St. Peter show us what to do to prepare for the Beatific Vision.  First St. Peter, when confronted with the dazzling white vision of Our Lord transfigured concludes,

"It is good for us to be here: let us make here three tabernacles..."

Then God the Father broke in,

"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him."

These are two aspects of prayer which are highlighted here; adoration and listening to Our Lord in the silence of our hearts.  To best prepare for the Beatific Vision, we are called to prayer listening for the directions of the Lord.  The highest form of prayer is Heaven itself so what better way to prepare for eternity than attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where Heaven and earth come together?

Then on Thursday of the Second week in Lent we hear the account of the rich man and Lazarus.  This parable reminds us of the reality of hell and serves as a warning.  Either we make ourselves comfortable, feast sumptuously on the goods of this life, and forfeit Heaven, or we join our sufferings in this life to those of Christ and become partakers in His eternal reward.  We can fast from the pleasures and fine things of life in order to unite ourselves to Our Lord's poor, storing up for ourselves treasures in Heaven.  Hell is very real and so is the torment.  Let us heed the call of Our Lord to pick up our crosses during this Lenten season that we may avoid the flames of hell. 

This account and that of the final judgement also stick out to me as calls to almsgiving, one of those four pillars of Lent.  Almsgiving is usually thought of as the act of donating money or goods to the poor but is also performing other acts of charity which are equally important.  Almsgiving begins with your family.

"If you want to change the world, go home and love your family." 

~St. Mother Teresa

I'm learning not to ignore the needs of my family or procrastinate when they ask me to do something because in serving and obeying them, I'm really serving and obeying Jesus.

"What you did for one of these, ... you did for Me..."

~Matthew 25:40

 I discovered that March 9th is the feast of St. Frances of Rome and she put this virtue into practice very well in her life. Fr. Alban Butler tells us*, "Whilst she was at her prayers or other exercises, if called away by her husband, or the meanest person of her family, she laid all aside to obey without delay, saying:

'A married woman must, when called upon, quit her devotions to God at the altar, to find Him in her household affairs.'”

"Be faithful to your family responsibilities; it's a holy thing to do and what Our Lord expects of us." 

~St. Frances of Rome

I know this post has been a bunch of rabbit hole tangents one on top of another but let's recap because I promise you it all comes together.  (At least it does in my head...)

There are four pillars of Lent: prayer, penance, fasting, and almsgiving.

There are also the Four Last Things: death, judgement, heaven, and hell.

The readings at the beginning of Lent have already shown us that the four last things should be in our direct focus and we can tangibly meditate on these four last things by practicing the four pillars of Lent.  If you miss the correlations I tried to mention so far, here are all four of them:

Death - Penance

Judgement - Alms

Heaven - Prayer

Hell - Fasting

Maybe others would come up with different correlations, but this is how I'm choosing to meditate on them this Lent.  So you see, my dear friends, the Church draws our attention to a very important part of our lives, the end of them here on earth.  She also gives us practical means to prepare for this end.  And all of this is displayed in the readings chosen for the holy season of Lent.  But we can't just attend Mass on Sundays and think we're set.  Every day of the Lenten season is filled with the exhortations of the Church Fathers and the example of Our Lord.  So even if you can't make it to Mass every day to hear these readings, maybe crack open your Bible or Missal at home once in a while during the week.  The Church's liturgy is filled with rich lessons if only we care to look.  I know there are so many ways to meditate on these four pillars and four ends but I hope you found something useful among my ramblings to help you grow closer in virtue to Our Lord.  I didn't even mention how all of this can help us walk with Our Lord to Calvary.  But alas, this blog post is far too rambling and long as it is.

So what have you learned or meditated upon this Lent?  I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

May God bless you and bring your Lenten practices to fruition.

Join the Lenten Blog Link-Up over at The Grim Writer's Blog!

*Quoted from the March 9th Daily Meditation in the March 2022 edition of Benedictus