Dear Friend 

Reflection by Msgr. Gerard H. McCarren, S.T.D.

John the Baptist’s prophetic ministry at the Jordan River:

As our bus approached the Jordan River, at the place which tradition identifies with the ministry of John the Baptist, we passed by the remnants of military camps from the mid Twentieth Century and barbed wire fences still marked with signs bearing stern warnings of landmines.  In combination with the harshness of the desert landscape itself, these indications of darkness and evil brought into high relief the piercing prophetic words of John:

He said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers!  Who warned   you to flee from the coming wrath?  Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance” (Luke 3:7-8).

Lent is time to come to grips with the evil in our hearts, and fiercely to combat it, knowing that as we do so, we launch a campaign against evil in the world.  “During Lent penance should not be only internal and individual, but also external and social” (Vatican Council II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 110).

John the Baptist was “a voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths’” (Isaiah 40:3 quoted in Luke 3:4).  Advent tones, yes, but Lenten ones as well: preparing for the Lord’s coming with joyful anticipation is what we do in Advent, but we do it in part by penance, recognizing that we are sinners and that we can only be ready for the Lord Jesus and the transformation He brings if we have some share in His Cross.

On Ash Wednesday we “remember that [we] are dust, and to dust [we] shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

But the Lord Who “remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14) “has compassion on those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:13). And our death to self leads to new life in Christ, as we read in the Epistle at the Easter Vigil: “Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were indeed buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).

We embrace Lenten discipline because: “Your inmost being must be renewed, and you must put on the new man” (Ephesians 4:23-24).  The Baptist’s stern call in the desert invites us to such transformation of life that the words of St. Paul, which the Church reads on Easter Sunday, may resonate in our hearts, indeed in every fiber of our being: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).

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Reverend Monsignor Gerard H. McCarren, S.T.D., was named Interim Rector/Dean of Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology for a period of one year, effective July 1, 2022.  He earned a B.A. from Yale University with majors in History and in Philosophy (Psychology track), an M.Div. from Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, and an S.T.L. and an S.T.D. in Systematic Theology from The Catholic University of America. He was named Spiritual Director for the Seminary effective July 1, 2004.  In Spring 2005, Monsignor McCarren was named Chaplain to His Holiness. From 2007 to 2016 he served as a Vatican appointee to the Joint Commission for Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Methodist Council.  Monsignor McCarren served as president of the Federation of Seminary Spiritual Directors (United States and Canada) from 2018-2022.