Millennial Lenten Reflections: Eternal spring is ahead!

Editor’s Note: The following is part of Millennial Lenten Reflections, a blog series in collaboration with Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Short reflections on the day’s readings, written by young adults from FMS and other organizations, will be posted everyday throughout Lent. 

This time of year it’s easy to get caught in the late-winter doldrums. The snow and slush have hung around just long enough that we begin to doubt that spring is really around the corner.

The Lenten season can drag as well. It seems like it’s been ages since we gathered together for Ash Wednesday, but Easter is just far enough away (a whole flip of the calendar page!) that it feels like it may never come.

Today’s readings are a great antidote to that “endless blah” feeling. They remind that, though Lent is a serious time, it is also a time for joy because we are preparing for the resurrection of Christ.

It can be easy to get caught up in the somber and penitential spirit of the season and forget to look ahead and remember the celebration that we’re preparing for. Today Isaiah reminds us of God’s promise to build us a heaven and earth of constant rejoicing, with no place for weeping our sorrow. It’s the resurrection of Christ, which we celebrate at Easter and is foreshadowed in today’s Gospel reading, that fulfills this promise.

Let’s remember that Lent is not an endless winter, but a preparation for the eternal spring that we hope awaits us.

Kaitlin Sullivan is an associate manager of product policy at Facebook, where she focuses on issues of safety and freedom of expression. She is a former Jesuit Volunteer and graduate of the University of Notre Dame and George Washington University.