This is why the Church proposes the season of Lent. More than simply an opportunity to cut down on chocolate consumption, to commit to do more good works, or to spend more time in  prayer, this season is given to us so that we can look reality squarely in the face.

But what is this “reality” that we are called to confront?

In his message for the beginning of Lent in 2015, Pope Francis wrote: “Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each community and every believer. Above all, it is a ‘time of grace.’ His love does not allow Him to be indifferent to us.”

We begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday. From the opening lines of the First Reading from the Prophet Joel, the scene is set: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.” (Joel 2:12) If we are being called to return, then we must have strayed. The distractions we face are more than minor annoyances; if left unchecked, they can gradually lead us away from the Lord and from His love for us.

Yet if we were to stop there — throwing our hands in the air, convinced that we are helpless to escape these distractions — our lives would be emptied of the joy for which we were created. Thankfully, the reading does not end in despair, it closes with hope: “Then the Lord was stirred to concern for His land and took pity on His people.” (Joel 2:18) In other words, the Lord’s “love does not allow Him to be indifferent to us.”

And what does this Love look like? It looks like Jesus on the Cross. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16) In this act of love, Jesus enters fully into the chaos of human life — so fully that He embraces death itself. And in His embrace of death, defeats it through His Resurrection from the dead.

Understood correctly, the season of Lent is Christian life in miniature — a snapshot of the rhythm of renewal we are invited to live every day of the year.

The Church calls this rhythm the Paschal Mystery: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord, through which we are drawn into a new flow of life. There is a current of grace present even within the distractions and challenges of our daily circumstances, woven into the very fabric of reality itself and made accessible to us through Christ.

Our challenge, then, is not to manage this reality through sheer willpower or personal strength. Instead, we are invited to beg Love for Life — to beg Christ, in our poverty, that in His great love for us — He who is Love Incarnate — would make His Life our own.

This is the reality we are called to confront during the season of Lent: the truth that we are unable to save ourselves, that we need a Savior — and the even greater truth that God has already sent His Son into the world to save us. He saves us not only from sin and death, but from the distractions, the boredom, the challenges, and the chaos that threatens to consume our lives.

This is the renewal we seek for “the whole Church, for each community and every believer,” as Pope Francis so earnestly expressed in his 2015 message for Lent.

As we allow ourselves to tap into that “current of grace” flowing through our daily lives, we pray — as we do each time we pray the Angelus — that through Christ’s Passion and Cross we may be brought to the glory of the Resurrection.

What Is the Paschal Mystery?

The Paschal Mystery is the saving work of Jesus — His Passion, Death, and Resurrection — through which He conquers sin and death and draws us into His own divine life. It is not only a past event, but a living reality made present in the Church’s liturgy and sacraments. In baptism we are united to Christ’s death and raised with Him to new life; in the Eucharist we share His self-giving love and are strengthened to become His witnesses. Day by day, we “die” to sin and selfishness and “rise” to a renewed life of grace, charity, and mission. Lent is a concentrated school of this pattern: turning from self-reliance to Christ, begging Him — love Himself — to make His life our own. The Paschal Mystery is thus both God’s decisive act in Christ and our ongoing participation in that act through worship, conversion, and love.

Passion > Death > Resurrection > Our Participation

Passion: Christ’s loving obedience and suffering for us

Death: His sacrificial offering that conquers sin

Resurrection: His victory and new, indestructible life

Our Participation: Baptismal identity, Eucharistic communion, daily conversion, charity, mission