Both Lent and all of Christian life are about becoming more like Jesus. In his ministry Jesus gives his life to bringing good news to the poor and reaching out to outcasts and sick people. In his death he gives his life for us his friends. In his resurrection, God shows us the power of such wholehearted self-giving — new life.
Our baptism calls each of us to participate in the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We act on our faith that giving ourselves in love and service as Jesus did will transform us and our world.
Jesus’ death and resurrection is like the life cycle of wheat. When a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it enters a process of transformation. In this process, the warm and moist earth swells the seed until the life inside it bursts the hull and puts forth a sprout.
Actually then, a seed does not fall into the earth and die. The seed changes, germinates, and grows. A new sprout pushes above ground into light. At the same time roots spread out underground to find nourishment. With rain and sun, one grain of wheat grows into a stalk that heads out and produces 50 or 100 new grains of wheat.
Christian life is also like the life cycle of wheat, a call to keep growing. All of us who believe in Jesus follow his way. Like a family, those who belong to the Christian community have signature characteristics such as those below.
Check ten statements most characteristic of you as a Catholic Christian.
- We gather to break bread and share it as Jesus asked us.
- We celebrate Christmas as Jesus’ birth.
- We celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection at Easter every year.
- We wash new members in the waters of Baptism.
- We pray for those who die.
- We often read stories about Jesus from the bible.
- We keep the ten commandments.
- We forgive others as we expectGod to forgive us.
- We share what we have.
- We visit the sick.
- We feed the hungry.
- We welcome immigrants.
- We educate the ignorant.
- We pray for each other.
- We bury the dead.
- We clothe the naked.
- We believe every human person is sacred, made in God’s image.
- We believe we are social, meant to build the human community together.
- We try to love our enemies and make peace.
- We believe all life comes from God.
- We believe in giving of ourselves as Jesus did.
- We believe we live in the Spirit who urges us toward communion.
- We believe God loves us.
- We pray every day.
- We keep sabbath as a day of rest and reflection.
- We treat our neighbors as we want to be treated.
Catholics keep Sunday by gathering and celebrating Eucharist together. We assemble as the people of God and do as Jesus asked us at the last supper — to remember his self-giving death and life-giving resurrection, to eat the bread and drink the wine that he made signs of his love. From the beginning Jesus’ followers gathered in homes to remember him. Actually Christians usually gathered in the evening because many were slaves who worked all day every day.
Keeping Sunday holy is one way the Christian community remembers who we are. A Sabbath is a pause, a time for rest and renewal. It is a time to see the wonders of creation in which we live and to appreciate having life from God. Sunday is a day for remembering our dignity as sons and daughters of God, adopted in baptism, not only students or employees.
For many teens and adults work gets in the way of keeping Sabbath. Employers can demand weekend work hours or long hours that make Sunday a day of sleep. Need for money can also keep us working long hours. Keeping Sabbath holy calls us to open ourselves at least each week to our transforming identity as baptized Christians.
Sabbath keeping is also Earthkeeping, caring for creation so Earth can continue to sustain us. The Earth in the perspective of Catholic social teaching is more than a source of coal, oil, and great crops of wheat. Life is an intricate ecosystem into which we are intricately woven. In fact, we are the most fragile creatures in the systems, dependent on plants and animals for air and food, dependent on Earth for water.
The vocation of humanity is to show forth the image of God and to be transformed into the image of God’s son.
Catechism of the Catholic Church #1871