Every year, the majority of Christians around the world, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant, participate in what is arguably one of the most counter-cultural traditions — the season of Lent.

This 40-day period in the Christian calendar leading to the annual celebration of the Resurrection of Christ is a time during which Christians intensify the ancient biblical disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

There are differences in the specifics of how various traditions observe Lent, but what is common to all is the intensification of spiritual disciplines in order to draw us closer to God in Christ.

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What makes this Christian observance of Lent so counter-cultural is that at its center lays the idea of self-sacrifice. Our culture around us screams to us to gratify every possible desire we have.

We are lured into the false notion that our happiness lies in getting what we want, whether through short-term hedonistic pleasure, the accumulation of wealth, or the purposeful use of others for our own gain. What results from this false promise of happiness is a society that is in bondage to lust, greed, resentment and power.

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The Christian Way of the Cross, however, proclaims the Truth that the path to true fulfilment, paradoxically, is the path of dying to self, in order to regain our true self in Christ. This is the profound Mystery of the Cross of Christ.

The infinite love of God for us and all creation is found in our Lord’s sacrificial offering of Himself for the life of the world — “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son . . .”

I think we all know this on an instinctual level. We know that the greatest, enduring joy that we experience in this life is when we are not focused on our own satisfaction, but on the well-being of others. Mothers and Fathers know the deep joy of loving and giving of themselves for their children.

We all know the joy that comes from moving with effort and sacrifice to achieve a goal, an aim that lies beyond the immediate. True joy, true peace, comes not from getting what we want. True joy comes from persevering to achieve the long-term goal.

At its deepest level, this ultimately comes from “seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

So, back to Lent. We pray, we fast and we commit ourselves to acts of love towards others. These are the disciplines the Church has practiced for over 2,000 years, because these disciplines train us and provide a framework, a strategy, to grow more deeply into the likeness of Christ.

The reality is that these disciplines manifest Christ himself. Our Lord was in a constant state of prayer and communion with His Father. He himself fasted, denying His own personal desires, as a means of acknowledging His total dependence on God.

And He loved, manifesting fully the true nature of God, who is Himself Love.

Jesus told us that, “Whoever would be my disciple, must daily take up His cross and follow me.” This is what we do during Lent. We shoulder our cross, our own sacrifice of ourselves, and we follow Christ. We die to self so we might live.

We die to the world and its false promises of happiness and pleasure, and we live to the Kingdom of God.

One final thought: These disciplines of Lent, prayer, fasting and love for others, are not reserved for the season of Lent. They are the very means by which we “take up our cross” each day and follow Christ. They are what form the Christian life.

They are the habits formed deeply within us that by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, enable us to say with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.”

A Blessed Lent to all.

David Henderson is a priest at St. John the Baptist Orthodox Christian Church in Craig. He can be reached at davidwh787@gmail.com.