The beginning of the Lenten season is marked by an emphasis on secrecy. While the gospels show Jesus’s public life and the commissioning of his disciples to go and preach the Good News, there comes a point where he advocates a type of secrecy, a seclusion of the heart, what we might call in our contemporary jargon a certain privacy.
For the first day of Lent, the Church chooses a passage from Matthew’s gospel where Jesus invites his disciples to avoid a subtle form of exhibitionism. He warns against an outward display of the three pillars of Christian spirituality: prayer, fasting and charity.
In our present context, a certain level of privacy is probably much needed given how much our life and personal information is scattered online. However, Lent is not an invitation to take a hermetical turn, to become avoidant or skittish. The heart of the matter is not whom one should hide oneself from, but really whom one should be open and transparent to. To let oneself be seen is a tacit approval to be known. To let oneself be known from within is difficult, because it requires a level of intimacy that we are wired for but also scared of.
Jesus’s invitation is to let ourselves be seen by the One who sees in secret. One would be justified to ask what would be the point of opening up to someone who already sees that which is concealed. Indeed, the One who knows each and every person from eternity would hardly require more information to be disclosed. The change occurs not in the One who sees everything, but in me when I choose openness instead of avoidancy, when I allow myself to be known more profoundly. That change, in Lenten terms, is a change of heart.
Lent’s destination is a celebration of new life, which unsurprisingly emerges from the hiddenness and darkness of the tomb
It is in the heart, which this same gospel calls the inner room, that the most honest part of every human being is found. More than a lock-up or a safe, this inner room is like a nest that provides the space for things to either grow or fester. The inner room is a place buzzing with activity, it is where different emotions, thoughts and motivations sometimes compete on who will take over.
Rather than avoiding this chaotic chamber, the invitation at this time is to become more familiar with it, and make it a place where an honest conversation with the One who sees in secret can take place.
Lent is a time where the essential, which as the Little Prince reminds us, is invisible to the eyes more often than not, is allowed to take more prominence. Our daily routines are not to be cast away or put on a shelf for 40 days. Rather, it is about living them with more intentionality.
The abundance of the Word that this time offers is meant to nourish the heart, which unfortunately is fed plenty of things but often remains malnourished on the food that really matters. Lent’s destination is a celebration of new life, which unsurprisingly emerges from the hiddenness and darkness of the tomb. The secrecy of this time is truly a nest, where new life, even if in the infancy stage, can be allowed to grow and mature.