First Sunday of Lent: Meditation on the Entrance Antiphon

“When he calls on me, I will answer him; I will deliver him and give him glory, I will grant him length of days.” – Entrance Antiphon for the First Sunday of Lent

Although we began our commemoration of the season of Lent on Wednesday today marks the beginning of “Lent Proper,” in that it is the first of the forty days before the Holy Triduum, which are a separate liturgical season of their own. The previous four days were added to the season of Lent because Holy Mother Church deemed it inappropriate to do penance upon Sundays, and thus they were excluded from the Great Fast, but desiring to keep the days of fasting at forty, Lent was then assigned to begin on Ash Wednesday.

It is for the original counting that we do not encounter the Gospel account which relates the Fasting and Temptation of Jesus until today, for this was the original beginning of the Forty Days, and this account, always related on this day from one of the three Synoptic Gospels, of course reminds us of the reason for our forty days fast. We fast for forty days in imitation of our Lord, and like our Lord, we do so “in the desert,” albeit in a figurative and spiritual sense, although many of the holy fathers in the early Church would literally retire into the desert for forty days of fasting and prayer to imitate Christ even more perfectly.

While this is normally not possible in today’s time, we should not allow this to in any way diminish our fervor, for that can be equal to those ascetics of old. However, our fervor, must, of course be manifested differently from theirs, for while we cannot retreat into the physical desert, we can certainly enter into a figurative one. St. Francis de Sales, in one of his sermons for Ash Wednesday, speaks concerning fasting and how it must be done with all of one’s senses. He says:

“This is what the Church wishes to signify during this holy time of Lent, teaching us to make our eyes, our ears and our tongue fast. For this reason she omits all harmonious chants in order to mortify the hearing; she no longer says Alleluia, and clothes herself completely in somber and dark colors. And on this first day she addresses us in these words: Remember, man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return, as if she meant to say: ‘O man, quit at this moment all joys and merrymaking, all joyful and pleasant reflections, and fill your memory with bitter, hard and sorrowful thoughts. In this way you will make your mind fast together with your body.”

In the season of Lent it is appropriate to remove many of the joyful foretastes of the heavenly glory we hope to one day possess for ourselves, not because they are bad (for in themselves they are either indifferent or good), but so that we may be reminded more easily that we have not yet attained that glory, and truly how difficult the struggle is! Nay, it would be impossible without the grace of God. Martin Luther was correct in saying that works do not account for our salvation, for the works of man can never perfectly overcome the trials of this world, except by the sheer grace of God! Thus, we call upon Him, that He may act in and through us, and so that He may deliver us from the evils of this world.

Nevertheless, we cannot completely make the mistake of discarding the necessity of works, for although we do not attain salvation through them, without them we can be certain we do not possess the faith that saves, for "faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead (James 2:17)." A living faith will display itself in works, towards God, our neighbor, and in ourselves, and these three directions are the three pillars of our Lenten observance. To God we pray, to our neighbor we give alms, and to discipline ourselves we fast.

Let us first look at fasting; the point of the austere fast of Lent is not to make us sad or sorrowful, but to remind us of the mystery proposed to us on Ash Wednesday – one day we will pass from this world. We know not the day or hour, but one day our soul will quit this body and stand before the Judge. At that moment, all we will have is our love, the love we showed to Him and to our neighbor.

The reason for our fasting from the pleasures of the world, then, is to focus our attention more on our Lord and on the needs of our neighbor. Legitimate pleasures are used by us for ourselves. By sacrificing them, we force ourselves to look outward. Our fasting, however, must be accompanied by prayer and almsgiving, or it will be to no avail for our souls. When Jesus went out into the desert, He was driven by the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1). He shows us that fasting must be from God and directed to God. His fasting began in prayer and it culminated in His ministry, which was one of almsgiving, for it was directed to us, His brothers and sisters.

Likewise, our fasting must be begun through prayer. It is through prayer that we are connected to God and are able to discern His will for us. By constant prayer, we are transformed more and more to the likeness of Christ. As Pope Francis says in his Message for Lent 2015, "Let us all ask the Lord: “Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum”: Make our hearts like yours (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference." Through constantly beseeching the Lord through the cry of prayer, we will be led, like Jesus, to where we must go and what we must do.

Now, we can have no greater sign than the mark of charity that our prayer has born fruit within us, since it is God's personal stamp on a soul. Charity orders our souls aright, and consequently we can see it in the event of Jesus' Temptation in the Desert. The charity that perfectly filled the soul of our Lord prevented Him from serving Himself, which would be what all three of the devil's trials did; instead, He gives glory to God alone. In the words of Christ, "Each tree is known by its own fruit....The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good (Luke 6:44-45)." The love of God, and consequently humility, for these two virtues always go together, will be the certain sign of authentic prayer bearing fruit. 

Nevertheless, charity will also display itself in love of neighbor, which takes place in almsgiving. Thus, through this season, we must give of ourselves to help our brothers and sisters in their needs, for in doing so, we show our love for God (Matthew 25:21-36) and imitate our Divine Master, Who gave completely of Himself.

This is the order then, that our penitential works during Lent must take. They must begin in prayer first, which will lead us to fasting, in order that we may be purified of love of self and likened unto God. This purification of our souls and emptying of self-love will fill us with the love of God, which will overflow in charity for our neighbor. And that will take place in almsgiving.

Let us then beg the Lord for His aid in granting us a new heart and spirit, that He may take our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh, that we may walk in His statutes and observe His ordinances (Ezekiel 36:26-27). This is a prayer He will not detest. Even if we are in the depths of sin and it is as if our very bones are dried up, so dead are we, let us recall that even there, the Lord can raise the deadest of the dead, as shown in the vision to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37:1-14)! The Lord promised Ezekiel that, "I will put my Spirit within you [Israel], and you shall live (Ezekiel 37:14)." Let us then cry on the Lord, so that He may fulfill His promise to us from the Entrance Antiphon - He will deliver us and give us glory. In God, we shall be able to conquer the temptations of the world, the devil, and the passions just as Jesus did in the desert!

Quote of St. Francis de Sales from: The Sermons of St. Francis de Sales for Lent Given in 1622, Edited by Fr. Lewis S. Fiorelli, O.S.F.S., Translated by Nuns of the Visitation, Tan Books and Publishers: Rockford, Illinois (1987).