The Mrs. Obvious Question of the Week: Why is Lent so Hard?

I have had four friends say in the past week that this Lent has been very hard for them.  I have resisted the urge to say; "Well, duh!"

If fasting, and sacrifice were easy would it bring us closer to God?  If we didn't struggle with our devotion and stumble in our attempts to maintain our goals for Lent would we be as likely to see how much we need the Supreme Sacrifice that Christ makes for us on Good Friday?

In a way, the more we struggle during Lent, the happier we should be.  Each time we stumble, each time another of our human failings is uncovered for us in the light of Truth we are drawn closer and closer to the source of our strength.  In our weakness God makes us strong.   Unless we know where our weak points are how can we ever gain the strength we need to grow stronger from them.

How blessed we are that the Church gives us this time to work through our failings.  As we meditate on the way of the Cross we should think about the fact that among the fourteen moments memorialized are three times that Jesus fell, carrying His cross.  If Jesus fell, and had the strength to get back up and continue to carry His cross, then we can pick ourselves up after we fall and get a stronger hold on our chosen cross and begin to move forward too.  We are blessed that we know the end of the story.  We know that our journey will not end on the Cross, but with the Resurrection of Easter and new life won for us by Christ.

So, Lent is hard,  and that should make us happy rather than grumpy, because if it is hard then we are doing it right.

Happy Lent People,

Pax