Living Out Lent From the Power of Easter

T. S. Eliot began his Four Quartets, “In my end is my beginning.” And that is how we should think about our Lenten path. All of Lent is leading toward a celebration of Easter as a Church and the triumph of the Resurrection in our own lives. But every step of the way is done because Christ’s Resurrection happened, and Easter’s power is present to us. Our beginning is made possible by the end. That is why we can keep going with thanksgiving and, indeed, joy. What we are aiming at is already mysteriously present to us and we can anticipate its fullness in our own lives.