We have entered into the season of Lent with the moving ceremony of the imposition of ashes (“remember that thou art dust...”). This season is a journey of spiritual preparation for Easter – the heart of the liturgical year of the Church. In what way can we receive this immense gift that the Lord gives us every year? I once noticed a Latin inscription on the main door of an ancient monastery that said: Intra totus. Mane solus. Exi alius. Enter with your whole self; remain alone; be changed when you leave. Intra totus: enter with your whole self... It is important to enter into Lent just as we are and without hiding anything. We allow the Lord to touch, illuminate and transform us and all aspects of our life completely.

Mane solus: remain alone. This is a time when we need to have silence within and to experience the desert for a while. Each of us needs to remain alone in order to hear the Lord, to meditate on his Word, and to examine our heart and conscience. There is so much noise around us and within us, and this noise can block out the voice of God and that of our brothers and sisters. Exi alius: be changed when you leave. Be transformed! The grace of our Lenten journey can change our lives. You might say that the resolutions that you have always made have been mediocre. Today God is assuring you that you are taking the right direction. Start again! God is with you! Therefore: Intra totus. Mane solus. Exi alius… This is a simple resolution for Lent this year.

Let us be more specific... Pope Francis chose the theme of poverty for his Lenten Message. In order to understand the Christian meaning of poverty, we look to the poverty of Christ. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2Cor 8:9). Jesus Christ denied himself and emptied himself in order to be like us. The Pope tells us in the Message that Jesus did not seek poverty for its own sake (cf. Lenten Message 2014). Jesus became poor in order to make us rich through his poverty. We were liberated from the slavery of our sins by means of his poverty. “Christ’s poverty which enriches us is his taking flesh and bearing our weaknesses and sins as an expression of God’s infinite mercy to us. Christ’s poverty is the greatest treasure of all” (ibid.). The Pope emphasised that God continues to save us and the world through Christ’s poverty, for Christ makes himself poor in the sacraments, in the Word and in the Church.

How can we apply this meditation by Pope Francis to our way of living Lent this year? The Pope gives us the answer: “Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt” (ibid.). These are the words of Pope Francis.

Let this Lent really be a time of self-denial for all of us. We can learn the art of self-denial from Saint Francis of Assisi. We know how Francis stripped himself of his clothes before his father, the bishop and the people of Assisi. It was a prophetic gesture that has much to say to us centuries later. Pope Francis explained the meaning of the gesture when he visited Assisi last year: “The renunciation of St Francis tells us simply what the Gospel teaches: following Jesus means putting him in first place, stripping ourselves of the many things that we possess that suffocate our hearts, renouncing ourselves, taking up the cross and carrying it with Jesus. Stripping ourselves of prideful ego and detaching ourselves from the desire to possess, and from money, an idol that possesses” (Meeting with the poor assisted by Caritas, 4 October 2013). We must be careful. If we are not able to accept this message about self-denial, Pope Francis tells us that “we would become like Christians in a pastry shop, saying: what beautiful cakes, what beautiful sweets! Truly beautiful, but not really Christians!” (ibid.). Self-denial is a serious thing. It decides whether we are Christians or not. Lent this year reminds us of this very forcefully.