The Goal of Lent and Life

Lent is a microcosm of the Christian life. It prepares us for Easter, just as the whole of the Christian life is a preparation for "The Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come" (the Nicene Creed). Through the intensified disciplines of Lent we deepen our connection to the Cross of Jesus with the goal of an intensified experienced of the grace and power of the Resurrection at Easter. We live the life of prayer at all times with the goal of participation in the resurrection of life when Jesus comes in glory (cf. John 5:28-29). As Philippians says,

We . . . eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself (Phil. 3:20-21).

The assumption that the overarching goal of the Christian life is to prepare for the coming of Jesus and the resurrection of the body is often forgotten today. There are two general reasons for it. First, the New Testament seems to anticipate that Jesus would come soon. Since that coming has been delayed for two thousand years, the focus has shifted away from it. Second, various “end times” teachers have made predictions about when Jesus will come. Since so many of these teachers have been so wrong, the whole idea that Jesus is coming has been discredited.

Our Current Experience of Christ’s Presence

Errors about the coming of Jesus result from a focus on chronology rather than on experience. For many, the expected coming of Jesus only makes sense if you can know when it will occur. However, the central biblical point is that the coming of Jesus will be the completion of our current experience of faith. “Now we see in a glass darkly, but then face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12). We are waiting for Jesus to come, but Jesus is present with us now and comes to us now through the Holy Spirit.

One way Jesus comes to us now is in the Eucharist. His coming to us now in the Eucharist anticipates his coming at the end. For example, Philippians 3:20 says that Jesus will change our sinful and mortal bodies into holy and immortal bodies. This bodily transformation is anticipated in the liturgy when we pray so to eat [his] flesh and drink his blood “that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his Body and our souls washed by his most precious blood.”

Or consider 1 John 3:2-3: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” As Jesus is revealed to us and comes to us now in Word and Sacrament (cf. Luke 24:30-31), our vision of Jesus grows. We see him more clearly and we are changed, now, by this vision.

This is the essential experience of the life of prayer. Prayer is an experience of communion with the Father in Christ through the Holy Spirit that anticipates the completion of our union at the appearance of Jesus. The life of prayer cultivates within us a longing for the completion of our current experience. As Romans says, “we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). This longing remains the central focus of our faith regardless of when it might happen. The Christian life is like an extended courtship that only makes sense as the anticipation of an actual marriage (cf. Matt. 25:1-13).

The various predictions people have made about when Jesus will come and the temporary flurry of preparatory activity they provoke in some are unbiblical. If we knew Jesus was coming in two weeks, it truly shouldn't make any difference in terms of what we would do tomorrow. The same thing is true of death, which is the completion of our temporal preparation to meet Jesus. For if we are always about the business of getting ready to meet Jesus in our prayer, it does not matter when he (or death) actually come. Jesus taught that ordinary faithfulness is the way to prepare for his coming. The faithful and wise servant is the one whom his Master will find doing his ordinary work faithfully when he comes (Luke 12:42-43).

Prayer as the End of Life, Not the Means to an End

If we take seriously the connection of our prayer to the coming of Jesus, we will reorient our lives around our prayer. Faith tends to be viewed in utilitarian terms. We tend to look at faith in terms of how it can help us with life in the world. For example, we may discover that prayer helps us to be more effective in our work or is instrumental in promoting the healing of sick people. Therefore, we will pray more in order to be better at work and have more health.

However, if life is oriented towards the coming of Jesus and if our prayer now anticipates that future encounter, then the prayer itself is the most important thing. This realization turns the conversation around. We will come to our prayer mindful of how our experiences in life are affecting our faith. What are we learning through the trials and challenges? How do we need to purify our motives and intentions toward our others? How are we growing in Christ towards the goal or "telos" of his coming?

This is what 1 Thessalonians 5:17 means when it says, "Pray without ceasing." It does not mean to maintain a constant stream of petitions for things we want. It means to be constantly mindful of the presence of Christ and his kingdom; to hold on to Christ always and to see all things in the light of Christ and his kingdom.

This is why the central temptation in the Christian life is the temptation to abandon our life of prayer. Once we have abandoned our prayer, we have lost the connection between the present moment and the consummation of all things in Christ. Faith is reduced to an anxious attempt to find happiness in this world now or further some temporal project now without regard to how these things relate to the kingdom of God.

Lent is an opportunity to reorient our lives around our prayer. It is a season to remember that prayer is not the means to end of something we want in life. Life is the arena in which we live out our prayer as we “eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”