Sharing Your Lenten Hope

Saint John Paul II reaches out to an ailing man as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta looks on during the pontiff's 1986 visit  to Calcutta.
(CNS photo / Artuo Mari)

Lent is a time of hope. It may not seem like it, but hope has actually been a part of those moments of denial you’ve experienced so far. Remember when you said “no” to that meatball sub last Friday? Or when you spent that extra five minutes with a friend in need? Or perhaps when you prayed a Rosary before going to sleep, even though you were dead tired? In all of those moments, you joined the Lord in the desert, denying yourself of something convenient and comfortable. You instead relied on God for your comfort, allowing Him to draw closer to you and fill you with hope.

In his 1998 Message for Lent, Saint John Paul II challenged the faithful to share this Lenten hope with others. Not only do we come to hope more profoundly in the Lord during this sparser time, but we also become more capable of sharing this hope with those in need. John Paul II wrote: “For a Christian the desert journey represents a personal experience of inadequacy before God, thereby becoming more sensitive to the presence of the poor.”

Jesus Himself became poor so that we might become rich (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). We too can live in solidarity with the poor this Lent, and so come to understand their plight. We can come to understand both their material and spiritual needs. We can see Christ in them! And through serving these poor, St. John Paul II writes, “the light of hope will again be ignited for many people. When with Christ the Church serves the person in need, she opens hearts to a new hope going beyond evil and suffering, beyond sin and death.”

Material care for the poor is good, but anyone who has lived in solidarity with the poor knows that a “word of hope” is what they need. That is, “the hope that comes from Jesus Christ,” as the sainted pontiff put it; the hope that only the Church can give.

St. John Paul II wished that Lent be an “occasion for each Christian to experience poverty with the Son of God and to be an instrument of His love in the service of our brother in need.” As we prepare to encounter the risen Christ on Easter Sunday, let us share the hope and love that He places in our hearts.

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!