Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Lent
Christ clashes with the Pharisees – Cathedral of Tours (France)
Entrance Antiphon for the Fourth Sunday of Lent
Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation.
Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man;
for Thou art the God of my strength.
V: Oh send forth your light and your truth. They will guide me on.
They will bring me to your holy mountain.
(Ps 43:1-2, 3)
The fifth Sunday in Lent strikes a different chord than previous Sundays. It seems the dial is turned up in our Lenten intensity. Our visual signal for this reality is the covering of statues, crosses, and holy images in churches, a tradition of some but not all parishes. We prepare ourselves more deeply for the coming observances of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
With the “dialing up” of our intensity comes a deeper entrance into the drama and the mindset of the Lord in anticipation of His Passion. This entrance antiphon, the first few lines of Psalm 43, sets the scene and the tone for this fifth week of Lent. The psalmist is in torment and pleads for God to deliver him from present evils. Every weekday gospel in the fifth week of Lent will describe some tension between Jesus and His adversaries. As we will see in the coming liturgies, Jesus will make bold statements about His divinity before the Jews, and they seek to kill Him for the crime of blasphemy. The words of the Psalm may well have been on the lips of Jesus as He knew His Hour drew nearer.
Yet this psalm reflects a profound hope in the psalmist. He has a beautiful view of the coming beatitude of the “holy mountain” he desires and to which God’s “light and truth” will bring him. Just as the psalmist dwells on the guidance of God and the holiness of his mountain, we too shall dwell on how God is guiding us to the holy days of Easter.
We have been on this journey of Lent for over five weeks now. It’s worth pondering how God has worked on you. Perhaps in your Lenten penance has uncovered in you some empty spaces -- some boredom or loneliness or other feelings of unfulfilled desire. For example, perhaps you discover in forgoing snacks between meals that you habitually ate out of boredom. Maybe your social media fast revealed a longing for connection. When you come face to face with those empty spaces, how are you filling them? Invite God into those empty spaces and ask Him how He wants you to fill them. Undoubtedly, He wants to fill them, somehow, with love for Himself and your neighbor. Love fills the empty spaces. It may not be as instantly gratifying, but a greater commitment to Jesus Christ and a greater love for the people He has put in your life are what satisfies the human heart. The empty spaces you have discovered in your life are a means to a closer union with God.
Lord, may “your light and your truth” guide us through these remaining days of Lent. Having been purified by repentance and having abstained from some earthly goods, may our hearts cling to You more ardently. Fill our hearts with a great joy in You. May our hearts be transformed by love of You and our neighbor, so that we may enjoy a beautiful union with You during the Easter season.