By Shini Melukunnel
Jharsuguda, March 11, 2020: The memory of growing up as a child in a traditional family in Kerala, southern India, is vivid. The Lenten season then consisted of sacrifice, giving up non-vegetarian items, fasting on Fridays. When I look back, those were mere rituals for me.
Today Lent takes on a much deeper purpose in my life. No longer do I think of it as only a period of sacrifice and abstinence. Lent is one of the most thought-provoking periods for me. This has not always been the case.
I remember during my Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) study, I was in the hostel. We were two religious sisters among hundreds of young lay women. the experience of Lent in the hostel was altogether different from our life in the community. Our spiritual growth then depended on us. Nobody was there to force us to go for Mass or prayers. I must admit that I had an altogether different experience of Lent when I was there.
My companion and I were used to buying some edibles from outside and eat. So we decided to sacrifice and donate that money to someone in need. Even if we came back tired from college at 3:00 pm, we went to the church for the Way of the Cross at 4. We also skipped one meal every day to experience the struggle that others go through.
When I identified what I wanted to give up something during Lent, it made me aware of how much I depend on other things rather than God and how they are leading me away or neglecting Him.
It happened one day when I stopped after Mass to pray at the altar of repose. A friend, who was with me in the hostel, watched me kneel to pray and look reverently on the tabernacle.
As I left she asked, “Why do you kneel and look like that at the tabernacle?” I answered that it is Jesus who is present at the tabernacle and I was kneeling because I loved him.
She innocently replied, “But if Jesus is in all of us, why do not you look at each other that way?” Her words have followed me all these years as I sometimes struggle to see the face of Jesus in others.
Even though Lent is personal time, the peace and joy we feel are even greater when we share it with others in our lives. This strengthens not only our faith, but our sense of community with our brothers and sisters.
I pray that this Lenten season may be a time of living and giving of the Gospel every day.
[Sister Shini Melukunnel is a member of the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS). She is a teacher at St Arnold’s Convent School in Jharsuguda, a town in the eastern Indian state of Odisha]