LENT, for many Christian faith-communities, is a period of penance, conversion, intense prayer and alms-giving that prepares the faithful for the celebration of the Solemn Paschal Triduum — the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. For the believer, the high point of the liturgical calendar is nothing short of the celebration of life in its misery, in its vulnerability and in its Redemption. One does not enter into this sacred period without preparation; hence, Lent. Starting on Ash Wednesday, the Christian goes through a 40-day period of self-denial, penance, prayer — capped by works of genuine charity neither to be announced nor to be made political capital of!
It was Lent last year when we first went into a national lockdown, alarmed that what we had earlier only read or heard about that was besieging European countries — we did not know then that China had exported the virus — was no longer news but a threat. It became even more alarmingly so when prominent physicians succumbed and hospital facilities were sounding the alarm. We all retreated behind closed doors. Even the Church did. Masses went on Facebook, and liturgists hastened to devise home services for that dimension of the Church that had received only token attention in the past — the domestic church, the home.
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