The most difficult task of a Christian involves that of being a living exemplar of the virtues present in Jesus. The Lenten season can be a gift in continuing this process of personal transformation.
'Exodus 90' is meant as a spiritual and athletic exercise for men that centers on prayer, fasting and fraternity. It gets some things wrong and some things right. In the process, it reveals some of the failures of the church today.
When the church allowed meat on Fridays, the intent was not to end the call for penance. Friday penance outside of Lent can now have a more personal nature, drawing each of us closer to God.
“Look at the closet of your soul—how many useless things you have, how many stupid illusions,” the pope said. “Let us return to simplicity, to things that are true, that don’t need to be made-up.”
“Christ, in his abandonment, stirs us to seek him and to love him and those who are themselves abandoned. For in them we see not only people in need, but Jesus himself, abandoned.”