It seems we only recently put our Christmas decorations away, yet it is time to think about Lent. The practices of Lent were born after Constantine signed the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313, when Christianity became a legal religion. Contrary to the History Channel or Dan Brown’s “reports,” the Emperor Constantine did not become a Christian before his mother, St. Helena. It was she who became a Christian while her son was the emperor and one can imagine a “royal rumble.” Constantine was forced to make Christianity legal or else to arrest his own mother. Later in life, when Constantine fell seriously ill, he was baptized, but he recovered. When his court, the senate, the army, etc. heard of his “conversion,” everyone wanted to be a Christian.

No longer would the Church be persecuted, but were these “converts” really converted to the teachings of Jesus? (Actually, the emperor after Constantine did try to reenforce the persecution, but by then it was too late). By necessity, the two to three-year catechumente had to be shortened to accommodate the deluge of would be converts. In an intense 40-day period before Easter, catechumens would conclude their preparation and prepare for the Easter sacraments, a new springtime of life. (The word “Lent” is Anglo-Saxon for “spring.”)

Over time, of course, observance of Lent, including receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation, became the way that Christians recommit themselves to Baptism — and to the other Easter sacraments. While Catechumens prepare for Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist and while many children prepare for the reception of one or more of the Sacraments, the rest of us are to ask ourselves: “How have I lived up to being a baptized/consecrated son or daughter of God?” In Lent we strive to renew our life in Christ, born in baptism.

In Jesus, God the Son became human. Emmanuel (God with us) became “Jeshua” (Jesus), that is, he who would “save his people from their sins” (Mt 1: 21). Jesus shares in our human weakness and frailty, our human joys and sorrows, our human burdens and accomplishments, our human pain and death, in our human powerlessness, poverty and politics. Jesus experienced everything that you and I do, except sin. But Jesus stepped into your shoes and mine and took upon himself our sins. He is the new Adam, the sinless Son of God representing each of us, and recreating us to become sons and daughters of God. He came to represent all of humanity in need of redemption. For this reason, the sinless Son of God submits to the symbolic remission of sin in the waters of the Jordan River.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:15-17). These were the words of the Father said over Jesus, who had joined the other sinners at the preaching of John. Jesus became one of us — the representative of all of us — as if a sinner. “This is the manifestation (the Epiphany) of Jesus as Messiah of Israel and Son of God,” says No. 535 of The Catechism. Christ’s first Epiphany was to the Gentiles with the coming of the Magi. In his second Epiphany, Jesus is manifested as if a sinner, taking your place and mine.

The Catechism No. 536 says: “He allows himself to be numbered among sinners; he is already the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Already he is anticipating the ‘Baptism’ of his bloody death. Already he is coming to fulfill all righteousness, that is, submitting himself entirely to his Father’s will: Out of love he consents to this baptism of death for the remission of our sins. The Father’s voice responds to the Son’s acceptance, proclaiming his entire delight in his Son. The Spirit whom Jesus possessed in fullness from his conception comes to ‘rest on him.’ Jesus will be the source of the Spirit for all mankind. At his baptism, ‘the heavens were opened’ — the heavens that Adam’s sins had closed — and the waters were sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit, a prelude to the new creation.”

The Baptism of the Lord gives us hope; in spite of our sinfulness God joins us to Jesus and makes us his sons and daughters, too. The Baptism of the Lord gives us courage; we are “divinized” by God the Son, who has become human, and, through our baptism, gives us a share in his divine life. In Lent, we enter this central Christian mystery and strive more faithfully to live up to our own baptismal call. Again the Catechism states (No. 537): “Through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father’s beloved son in the Son and ‘walk in the newness of life.’” Let us all strive to do our very best during the privileged period of Lent to be spiritually renewed.

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