Lent is a time of getting ready for the party.
first, it is getting ready for Jesus’ resurrection at Easter in a few weeks. In the longer term it is getting ready to enjoy eternal life with him.
To get ready for a party we get cleaned up and put on our best clothes. We may even skip a meal or two to be ready to enjoy the good food which will be served.
Getting ready for a party may require some things that are unpleasant, but we put up with them because of our anticipation of the joys to come. In the same way we may give up some things for Lent. We go to Confession where we must acknowledge our faults. We redouble our attempts to pray well. We fast, according to the rules that the Church has given us. Above all, we give alms. We try to do something for the poor, remembering that in his proclamation in Nazareth in Luke’s Gospel Jesus says first, “I have come to preach the
good news to the poor.” And in his Sermon on the Plain he begins “Blessed are you poor.”