Why We Want to Keep Some of that Penitential Spirt of Lent During This Easter Season
Lent urges us to draw away from the pleasures and enticements of this world. Easter brings us hope of eternal life in the next - a much, much better life. Ideally, having withdrawn our attention and devotion to the things of this world, we have cleaned the slate and prepared ourselves for that which Our Lord suffered and died for: our salvation.
The Postcommunion prayer for Easter Wednesday in the traditional rite sums it up this way: "We beseech You, O Lord, that being cleansed from the old nature, the solemn reception of your sacrament may change us into new creatures..."
We might compare this to our worldly work. I suspect all of us have periods where we need to apply more time and effort, others less so. In my own work, this more intense exertion could be focused on the business itself or the knowledge I need to obtain to perform the services I provide.
When I focus on improving the business itself, I'm typically looking to improve, increase, or streamline how I run the business. Improvement also focuses on producing better quality work. Increase mean adding and/or expanding on the services I offer. Streamlining helps me to concentrate my efforts in order to get things done in a shorter time frame. This frees up my time for additional projects.
The object of these efforts is not to create relief from work itself. It's to make the work better: to serve others needs more efficiently, more effectively. What else am I in business for? (Yes, to make money of course. But, seriously, if I come to you and say, "Please pay my fee so I can make money," would that entice you to use my services?)
During Lent we concentrate our time and attention on prayer, penance, and almsgiving. These "3 Pillars of Lent" aren't exclusive to that Holy Season. But we're encouraged to take those 40 days to to apply more time and effort.
When we apply more time and effort into various aspects of our work, we do so expecting improvement of some some sort. When we apply more time and effort into prayer, penance, and almsgiving during Lent, we might also expect some improvement or advancement in our spiritual life.
Concentrated effort undertaken to improve our work has nothing to do with minimizing or avoiding it. Think about it: Would you put extra effort into improving your work if you really disliked what you were doing? Okay, maybe if you thought you might make more money by getting a raise, or selling more products and services you might seek improvements. But it's hard to sustain an ongoing effort to improve when what you improve is something you really dislike.
Similarly, unless you really desire to improve your spiritual life, you likely won't be all that enthusiastic about pursuing a rigorous Lenten discipline. Why bother if all your fasting, abstinence, sacrifice, and concentrated time at prayer has no purpose other than - well, I'm not sure what possible purpose it could have other than the desire to advance your spiritual life.
So as we work our way through the Easter Season, let's extend our efforts to advance our spiritual lives - i.e., to grow closer to Our Lord. With His suffering and death He "purchased" our salvation. It's a gift beyond compare. Our desire to grow closer to Him recognizes this and serves as the best way to thank Him.
Merely going through the motions at work likely won't result in any significant improvement over time. It takes serious, persistent application of your knowledge, skills, and experience. Sometimes, in order to get to the next level of success, that might require special concentrated effort. If our efforts result in the improvement we desired, we can enjoy our success. But that doesn't mean that with success we put our feet up and go to sleep. Another day's work awaits us.
In our spiritual life, mere words or thoughts of adoration, petition, or Thanksgiving won't necessarily bring us closer to Our Lord. It takes sustained work driven by love of Our Lord.. Lent has afforded us a special time to concentrate our efforts. If our efforts during Lent result in some improvement - if we have grown closer to Our Lord - we can enjoy our success during Easter. But at that point we don't just put up our spiritual feet and allow our soul to slumber. Another day's work awaits us - and then another, and then another.
We keep going until Our Lord finally, one day, calls us home.
The measure of our success at work can take many forms: money, recognition, status, advancement, etc. The measure of our success of our spiritual life takes only one form: closeness to Our Lord. In the end, that closeness will only manifest itself fully in Heaven. He rose from the dead to help us understand this.
Easter is our time to let Him know that we do understand.
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