Lent is about justice

By Fr Stephan Alexander

General Manager, CCSJ and AMMR

Lent is a season of preparation—both for mourning and for victory. It is a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, leading us to reflect on Christ’s sacrifice and anticipate the triumph of Easter.

Justice, like Lent, is a season of struggle, in which we experience suffering while holding onto the hope of victory. These two realities—Lent and justice—intertwine because the cross of Christ assures us that justice is not only a pursuit but also a promise.

One of the most profound days within the Lenten journey is Holy Saturday. It is a day that can feel never-ending—a day where the agony of Good Friday lingers, and the hope of Sunday seems distant. For many, Saturday is a day of rest. However, for the Israelites in Jesus’ time, the Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday was a day of waiting—waiting for justice, waiting for hope, waiting to see if Jesus’ words about rising again would indeed come to pass.

God’s Word has always brought reality into existence. In Genesis 1, we see this repeatedly: “God said … and so it was.” The divine Word has the power to create, restore, and fulfil promises.

On that Holy Saturday, Jesus’ followers waited anxiously to see if His words would hold true. Would His promise of resurrection materialise? Would Isaiah 55:11— “so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty”—prove trustworthy?

Many of us today find ourselves in a similar state of waiting. We long for justice to be realised. We yearn for a world where the dignity of every person is upheld, where the vulnerable are protected, and where oppression ceases.

We wait for the fulfilment of Jesus’ proclamation in Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.”

This prophecy, first declared in Isaiah 61:1, was boldly affirmed by Christ as fulfilled. And yet, as we look around, we see that oppression still exists, the poor remain, and captivity—whether physical, economic, or social—persists.

It is easy to feel that Holy Saturday has become a prolonged reality, stretching beyond a mere 24 hours and encompassing our daily lives. We witness discrimination, dehumanisation, and countless injustices that seem to contradict the promise of liberation.

However, just as Holy Saturday is not the final chapter in the Paschal Mystery, the injustices of today do not have the last word. Saturday is painful and difficult, but it is also holy. It is holy because it holds within it a purpose, a sanctification, a promise.

It reminds us that God’s justice is not forgotten—it is unfolding. The silence of the tomb is not the silence of abandonment but the quiet anticipation of resurrection.

This hope is not a naive optimism but a deep, faith-rooted conviction. Easter Sunday came after the agony of the Cross and the silence of the tomb. The same will be true for the injustices we witness and endure.

The empty tomb is proof that God’s justice will be fulfilled, even if it requires a period of waiting. This waiting is not passive but active—it calls us to lament, to fight for justice, and to remind the world that God’s promises are not empty.

As Christians, we hold onto the words of Isaiah 30:18: “For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” We wait, not in despair, but in expectation.

We carry our struggles, our tears, and our hopes to both the cross and the empty tomb, knowing that the suffering of Good Friday leads to the joy of Easter Sunday.

The story of Lent is ultimately a story of justice— justice that was seemingly defeated but ultimately triumphant. It teaches us that though injustice persists, it does not define us.

Though oppression lingers, it does not have the final say. And though we may find ourselves waiting in the long silence of Holy Saturday, we do so with the unwavering certainty that Sunday is coming.

The Resurrection of Christ assures us that justice is not a distant dream but a divine reality in the making. Until that fullness is realised, we continue to hope, to lament and to work for justice knowing that justice will ultimately reign.

(This article is a reimagining of a 2022 blog entry by Pricelis Perreaux-Dominguez for “Chasing Justice”: https://chasingjustice.com/blog/ )

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