Period of Purification & Enlightenment

As I prepared this week for a presentation at our diocesan RCIA Institute entitled “Lent; A Time of Spiritual Preparation and to Purify Hearts” I thought about the elements and techniques that are involved in preparing our catechumens for this period which begins with Ash Wednesday.  Our RCIA gatherings change in tone from a catechetical approach to an approach that is more reflective and focused on deepening our awareness of all that keeps us from being intimately close with Our Father. This is a time where our pedagogy  becomes one of providing an environment for a deeper and more intimate encounter with Christ. It is a time to be open and honest with ourselves;to  ask the kind of reflective questions that take us past the edge of where we feel safe, and we carefully probe the untouched wounded areas of our heart. 

As a pregnant mother cares for herself and her unborn child, caressing her growing belly knowing that she will soon give birth to her child, the Church continues to tenderly care for her  unborn members.  She has been nourishing them, protecting them, instructing them, and helping them to see with new eyes and to appreciate our Catholic way of interpreting life. We help our new members to see the signs and symbols of our salvation story through a Christian lens.  The lenten season is a time to look really really closely, as a surgeon would with a microscope, uncovering any spiritual dis-ease that may exist so that it may be treated and removed; allowing for our freedom to live in Christ.

In the early Church, the catechumens, who in this period become known as the Elect, were presented with our Creed and The Lord’s Prayer.  St. Augustine saw the presentations of the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer during this period as an important milestone, for many of them it would be the first time they would hear them. I wonder, perhaps for many of us already baptized who publicly proclaim our Creed and pray the Our Father ever try to “hear them for the first time” again?

As we all prepare for their spiritual transformation that is experienced in plunging into their baptismal waters, we all should prepare too for our own spiritual renewal. This liturgical period is one of surrender, of death to our old ways so that we can become healed.  We face our fears; we become profoundly aware of our need for salvation through Jesus Christ. 

What a gift the Elect are to our community, with them we can all be born anew and we join them at our Lord's table where we share in his sacred body and blood. We become one body in Christ!