Long-Range Event PlanningRead Time 9 min

We are less than 60 days from the high point of the liturgical year — the celebration of Easter.

Traditionally, the Church marks the three weeks before the start of Lent as a liturgical season called Septuagesima, which is Latin for “Seventieth.” As a side note, the name for Lent in Latin is Quadragesima which means “Fortieth.” Notice that all calculations of time are derived from the date of Easter. While most of us do not officially celebrate the traditional period before the start of Lent as a liturgical season in our parishes, one is able to see that Holy Mother Church still gives us hints in the liturgy that now is the time for long-range planning.

This is probably most evident in the readings at Mass. The Gospel selections in the Lectionary for Year C highlight some import qualities of the Christian. During the three Sundays before the start of Lent this year, we hear Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain” from St. Luke’s Gospel. We hear the “Beatitudes” (Luke 6:17, 20-26), the encouragement to love even our enemies (Luke 6:27-38), and to remove the wooden beam from our own eye before removing the splinter from our brother’s eye. (Luke:39-45)

If we are listening and being attentive to these texts proclaimed at Mass, one might begin to ask, “Where do I need to change my life?” or “Where does God want me to receive the strength to live fully the dignity of being his beloved child?”

It is encouragement for us to see that long-range event planning applies to our lives as Christians. Change is hard. Life can be hard. Living the Christian life can be hard. Before beginning any arduous journey, it takes some planning on our part.

If we are to be prepared right away on Ash Wednesday to try all over again to live the Gospel in our lives to be prepared to celebrate Easter well, might it be a good idea to get ready before we get started, and be ready for the journey of Lent ahead?

The readings at Mass are not randomly selected or are even at the discretion of the priest. As a Church throughout the world, all Catholics hear the same readings proclaimed. According to the Pontifical Yearbook 2024, there are 1.39 billion Catholics in the world, which is about 18 percent of the population of the world. That is a lot of people hearing the same message at relatively the exact same time every week of the year. In addition, it means that in the United States, based upon Mass attendance statistics, approximately 15 million people are hearing the same message. And to take it a step further, based upon the number of Masses celebrated in the United States for each Sunday, there are approximately 70,000 homilies preached!

In his outstanding book, “The Wellspring of Worship,” Jean Corbon said when the Gospel is proclaimed in Mass, through the Holy Spirit, “the words of Jesus are more than a form of teaching; they become an event.” This thought is a reminder that when the word of God is proclaimed, we are to take note that the word is alive in our midst. The proclamation of the word of God is an integral part of Mass, and it helps us to recognize Christ alive in our midst — in the Eucharist, the priest, in the assembly and in the Word, “since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 7) Imagine what can happen in our world if we all pay attention to the Gospel? The Church prays this collect for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time:

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, always pondering spiritual things, we may carry out in both word and deed that which is pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Let us listen and allow the Gospels, especially in this time before Lent, to sink deeply in us so that we might seek out ways to live the liturgy in our everyday lives, find areas in our lives in need of healing and strengthening. The Mass shows us how to live lives of sacrificial charity in and through the proclamation of the word of God and receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical letter on the sacred liturgy, Mediator Dei, teaches, “that Christians should possess, as far as is humanly possible, the same dispositions as those which the divine Redeemer had when He offered Himself in sacrifice: that is to say, they should in a humble attitude of mind, pay adoration, honor, praise and thanksgiving to the supreme majesty of God. Moreover, it means that they must assume to some extent the character of a victim, that they deny themselves as the Gospel commands, that freely and of their own accord they do penance and that each detests and satisfies for his sins. It means, in a word, that we must all undergo with Christ a mystical death on the cross so that we can apply to ourselves the words of St. Paul, ‘With Christ I am nailed to the cross.’ (Gal. 2:19)” (no. 81)

Let us take to heart the words of the Prayer after Communion for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time:

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we may experience the effects of the salvation which is pledged to us by these mysteries. Through Christ our Lord.

This helps to remind us that our long-range planning is not merely for our self-improvement or only for the celebration of Easter this year, but for our eternal participation in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb celebrated forever in heaven.