The Season of Lent is a season of grace when through the tripartite holy practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we strive to climb and arrive at the glorious mountain of Easter, the season of renewal. The Lenten Season, which runs between Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper exclusive on Holy Thursday, has a double character, namely to prepare both catechumens and the faithful to celebrate the Paschal Mystery. The Catechumens, both with the Rite of Election and Scrutinies, and by catechesis, are prepared for the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation; the faithful, ever more attentive to the Word of God and prayer, prepare themselves by Penance for the renewal of their Baptismal promises.

The Old Testament Theology was developed among the people of Israel to hold that one gets saved through fidelity to the law. The First Reading at the liturgy this weekend begins with this understanding. “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you.” (Sirach15:15). This is understandable especially when one considers that with the exile, most of the important aspects of their culture and religion, with the fortunate exception of the law, were lost.

The Gospel passage this weekend is taken from the “Sermon on the Mount” that immediately follows Jesus’ proclamation of the Beatitudes, the ordinary and necessary precepts for a true Christian life. Here, Jesus used concrete images of light and salt to demonstrate that glorifying God is the purpose for which we are called and chosen to be His disciples and to be witnesses to the Gospel. Something is considered good only to the extent that it fulfills the purpose for which it exists.

The Bible is a story of two Covenants, the Old and the New Testaments. Each Covenant had its precepts and a process through which the precepts were handed down to the people who chose to be partners with God in a Covenant. In the Old Testament, Moses became the mediator through whom God gave the decalogue that codified the precepts of the Covenant, made God with the patriarchs, and renewed on Mount Sinai with the people of Israel who were on their way to the land promised them.