The Season of Lent

SUMIT DHANRAJ





“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy ,“ said Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, asking us to be merciful in our lives. A lawyer asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?“ Jesus replied, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?“ The lawyer answered, “You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.“ Jesus said he had given the right answer.The season of Lent that concludes with Easter preceded by Good Friday focuses on three major observances to be taken up with renewed spirit and zeal for the 40 days of the season: mercy , fasting and alms-giving.The message of Lent is a time for reflection and transformation of one's attitudes and deepening of one's faith, demonstrating and sharing it through corporal and spiritual works of mercy . “Faith finds expression in concrete, everyday actions meant to help our neighbours in body and spirit,“ says Pope Francis, adding that feeding the hungry , visiting the sick, showing kindness to strangers, offering instruction, giving comfort... “on such things will we be judged“.Particularly during the Year of Mercy , he said, we are called to recognise our own need for God's mercy , the greatness of God's love seen in the death and resurrection of Christ and the obligation to assist others by communicating God's love and mercy through words and deeds.