FAST OF THE CATACHUMENS
Jesus did not say
that the person who believes in Him will have eternal life.
J
esus did not say that the person who believes in Him, will have eternal life. What he said, rather was that the person who believes in him has eternal life. In other words, we who share in Christ's Paschal Mystery through Baptism have eternal life now, this very moment. To be baptized means to live out the life-death-resurrection of Jesus now. That means that we must be willing to die in order to live. We must be willing to die to self and selfishness.Lent is the time during which we can die to all those things that bind us and the things that blind us. Being bound to this dying world and blind to the heavenly life in Christ stops us from living as people marked by the Paschal Mystery.
Today is the Fast of the Catechumens. It is the day where we are all called to such a death. Where penitents and faithful alike are called to begin the passage together. Supporting each other along the way, encouraging and consoling one another, having been trapped in the Womb of Lenten darkness for 40 days, we might together also emerge from the Tomb, embraced by the new life and the light of eternal life in the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom is worthy Glory now and always, Amen.
In Christ's love
Fr. Shenork Souin