It is at about this point in Lent that we tend to do one of three things in regards to our Lenten sacrifice:
1. Congratulate ourselves on our success to this point.
2. Negotiate our Lenten sacrifices because we bit off more than we could chew.
3. Drop our sacrifice completely because we have failed or because of apathy.
In all of these options, it is easy to miss the mark on what a Lenten sacrifice is meant to be.
Regardless of if we took on an extra fasting, devoted ourselves to prayer, or dedicated ourselves to charitable work, our Lenten sacrifices in western culture tend to take an egotistical focus. We view the sacrifices almost as a 40 (or 46) day challenge asking ourselves ‘can I do it for God?’ While doing things for God is good, this viewpoint ultimately misses the mark.
At Christmas, Jesus, the Son of God, becomes one of us. As fully God, Jesus communicates the love of the Father to us in a way that we can receive and understand. As fully man, He teaches us the life that we are meant to live and demonstrates how to love the will of the Father. The Incarnation is about love: God showing love to us, and God showing us how we are meant to love Him. What a great Christmas gift!
Lent is meant to do the same. Jesus goes into the desert to fast and pray for forty days for the purpose of doing the will of His Father. We join Jesus in the desert with our Lenten sacrifice not as a trivial 40 day challenge, but as a way to unite our sufferings with Him. We enter into our Lenten sacrifices so that He can live in us. Thus, when we examine how we are doing with our Lenten sacrifices, we should not ask if we have completed a daily checklist. Rather, we should ask ourselves if our sacrifice has brought us into greater love with the Father. The mark of a successful Lent is that Jesus has become incarnate in our lives, and there is nothing more Christmas than that.
