My brothers and sisters in Christ, eight years ago, I had the privilege of climbing Mount Sinai with my very feet. At the top of Mount Sinai, one has the most splendid view of the surrounding region and its mountains. I had the opportunity to stand in the place where it is said Moses received the 10 Commandments from the Lord.

The journey up that mountain is no easy task, but it does give you the perspective that in order to be able to enter into things that are divine, you must leave behind the mundane. Indeed, from such a perspective on top of that mountain, everything seems very small. You look out over various other mountains which wish they were as tall as Sinai is. It gives insight to the journey that we are asked to make in preparing ourselves for the glory of the Lord. This is exactlythe work that we have in this Lenten season. We are being prepared for the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, where the Lord in all His glory was fulfilled in the work that he desired to do, to redeem man from his sinfulness.

If it weren’t for all of the hours and days that I spent in Rome climbing up the Aventine Hill, going to class at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, I doubt that I would have had the strength to climb Mount Sinai.  The climb took about four and a half hours one evening, leading to dawn in the morning.  The rough weather and cold wind nearly froze my hands and my feet. Indeed, for such a trip, one must be prepared. You can’t decide to “just do it.” It’s not easy to get to Mount Sinai, either. You have to drive all the way around the peninsula, a journey of about nine hours traveling in a van through a desert.

One must be prepared for that trek up the mountain to experience the glory of the Lord. One week ago today we entered into this penitential season.  Today is the first of the Ember days in the season of Lent.  The Ember Days help us in many ways. The renowned Fr. Pius Parsch once said that if Lent is our annual retreat, then the Ember days are our quarterly checkups. That’s a pretty good way of looking at it, because what are we asked to do in the Lenten season? To prepare for the glory of the Lord which will be revealed to us at the Resurrection. We’re asked to take a long, hard look at ourselves and see where it is that we have sinned and transgressed the Law of the Lord, where we have failed to live in accordance with the commandments, especially in the Great Commandment that Jesus Himself gave us, to love one another as He has loved us.

We are asked to enter into penitential work; prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Today, an Ember day, is a day of prayer and fasting. These practices help us who are focused and concentrated in a corporal existence to be able to deny ourselves the things our body would like to have.  By denying ourselves, we open up ourselves to something beyond us. I must emphasize that this season of Lent is not a divine weight loss plan. That is not the point of fasting. Self-denial, self-restraint is. And for what reason? Not simply as penance for the wrongs we have committed, but to lead us to metanoia, a conversion, a complete change of course.  We have become distracted from walking that path that Christ himself hewed with the jib of the cross as it drags on the ground. We have embraced other things, some of which replace God’s words with words that sound more comforting or more immediate, that might provide us with greater pleasure, that might be easier on us.

You must return, therefore, to God’s teaching. If we truly enter into this Lenten season and embrace such penance and reconciliation, we will have the food for the journey that is required for these 40 days, just as Elias had. Fed by the Lord when he had prayed for death, Elias had the strength to make the journey. After one week, you may feel in your penitential observances that enough is enough, but no, we’ve only just begun the journey. How can we continue in a way that is fruitful? In three ways – first,  we have recourse to God’s word, which is contained in Scripture. The Word Made Flesh has given us the food of His Word, which is contained in the Gospels. Second, we continue in prayer, where God can speak to us, console us and comfort us.  In prayer, we ascend the mountain of the Lord and leave everything else behind where it belongs, so that we can converse with Him. Third, we can continue the journey fruitfully in receiving that great spiritual food that we have in the Sacraments, that nourishing nectar and that delectable food that is the sacramental Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Our Lord speaks to all of us in the Gospel today and encourages us to reform our lives just as the Ninevites did when they heard the preaching of Jonah.  He encourages us to take harbor in His wisdom, just as the Queen of the South did when she listens to the wisdom of Solomon, and in so doing, give ourselves that which is necessary and required to fight the good fight against evil.  Evil spirits are going to notice that we are in a spirit of repentance and try to destroy our efforts. As our Lord said, “When one spirit is cast out of a man and returns, finding him swept and clean and tidy, seven more come and completely overwhelm him.” What is our force field against all of that? Penitential works, prayer, fasting, alms-giving, self-denial, recourse to the Sacraments, and of course, all with the intent of climbing the mountain of the Lord to experience His glory.

Once I saw that beautiful sunrise at the top of Mt. Sinai, I began the descent.  Rather than four and a half hours uphill, it took two and a half downhill. It is a beautiful sight to stop to see just how far you’ve come. I encourage each one of you.  Just when you feel that the winds are too much and it’s getting too cold and it’s too dark and you’re getting chilly, don’t stop. Keep going, because the glory that you will see at the top is as nothing compared to the sufferings that you experienced in the present. After all, isn’t that what we are pursuing, the glory of the Lord.  One day we will see that glory when we see Him face to face, as even now we see Him in the Sacraments and experience His great love for us. Let this first Ember day, therefore, be an encouragement to you to continue on this arduous, difficult and rewarding path.