Why Lent is necessary.

Lent is the holy season when the Liturgy once more calls the faithful to radical conversion and trust in God's mercy: "Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned."

In the Roman rite Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (this year Feb. 25) with the evocative rite of the imposition of ashes and the words: "Dust you are and unto dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19). Our foreheads are marked to remind us of three things: our insignificance, our status as sinners, and the reality of death. Ashes have no substance; the slightest breath will blow them away and thus they are a good representation of our nothingness: "Lord ... my lifetime is nothing in your sight" (Ps. 39:5).

Sin and death are the bitter and inseparable fruits of man's rebellion against God. "God did not make death" (Wisdom 1:13); it came into the world through sin; and the sad "wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Created by God for life, joy, and holiness, we bear in ourselves an eternal seed (Gaudium et spes, 18) and therefore we cannot but suffer in the face of illness and death.

The Church's invitation to reflect upon these truths is not to dishearten us by a pessimistic view of life, but rather to open our hearts to repentance and hope. If Adam and Eve's disobedience introduced sin and death into the world, Christ's obedience to the will of the Father brought their remedy. Lent prepares us to celebrate the paschal mystery through which Christ sets us free from sin and eternal death, while physical death is converted into the way of communion with God. Sin and death are conquered by Christ's death and resurrection on Easter day (this year, April 11).

Canadian society

As we contemplate our personal sins and what is necessary to return to God as individuals, let us try to be clear also about the spiritual renewal necessary in society. As the Holy Father told the Scottish bishops a year ago, "as in many lands evangelized centuries ago and steeped in Christianity, there no longer exists the reality of a 'Christian society,' that is, a society which despite human weaknesses and failings, takes the Gospel as the explicit measure of its life and values. Rather, modern civilization, although highly developed in technology, is often stunted in its inner depths by a tendency to exclude God or keep him at a distance." (March 3, 03). We in Canada are all too well aware of how, beginning in the nineteen sixties, we have rejected the rule of God in our society. There are consequences attached to that which we cannot escape.

The illustrations hereby included show the percentage of Canada's total population by five-year age groups, separately for males and females. In 1950, Canada's population formed a classic pyramid shape, where each successively younger age cohort represented a larger portion of the population. In 1950 the birth rate was 3.7.

Since 1972 the birth rate has been below replacement rate (2.1 per thousand) and today hovers between 1.5 and 1.6 (in Quebec 1.4), totally inadequate to take care of the future. Consequently, the graph for 2000 shows the bottom part of the pyramid cut in half. Therefore, social surveys forecast shortages of people in just about every profession beginning in a few years from now (police, army, nurses, firemen, etc.).

Needless to say, these surveys never refer to the cause of what they call "decline in fertility rates." The causes are surgical and chemical abortions, sterilization, contraception, refusal to have children, homosexual propaganda, hedonistic lifestyle, pornography. Although none of these are any longer crimes in the eyes of the state, they remain atrocious sins in the eyes of God. Abortion, for example, is murder.

Pope John Paul II spoke of the "crisis of civilization" in his letter On the coming third millennium, a crisis which, he said, must be countered by the civilization of love, founded on the universal values of peace, solidarity, justice and liberty, which find their full attainment in Christ" (no. 52). We in Canada have much to reflect upon and pray about during this holy season.