What does Lent mean?

Lent comes from Old English lengthen or lencthen, a word that indicates the lengthening of daylight hours as we move toward Spring in the northern hemisphere. Thus, we find the weeks of Lent emerging around the vernal or spring equinox, right between the winter and summer solstices. At the spring equinox (mid-March), there are almost equal hours of light and darkness. It should not surprise us, then, that the northern hemisphere experiences a transformation, a conversion, in the land and the skies at this time of the year. Derived from its original name, Mars, the ancient god of war, March is marked by the struggle between light and darkness, by winter’s retreat and the promise of summer’s warmth and flourishing.

The Spring transformation of the land – from cold and barren to moist and fertile – and the transformation of the skies — from darkness to increasing light and warmth — was not lost on our ancient Jewish ancestors. By the time of the birth of Jesus, Jews throughout the ancient Mediterranean world celebrated the ancient Passover out of the “night” of Egyptian slavery into the “light” of God’s own freedom at the spring equinox. Why? The emergence of Spring expressed their own deep memory that as God acted in the past — offering deliverance from oppression, diminishment, and death — so could will continue to act in the present and the future.

When does Lent begin and end?

Lent began on Ash Wednesday, March 9. On that day we are marked with a double sign, an ashen cross on our foreheads: double because it speaks the truth of our mortality – we are creatures made of the earth. It also speaks the truth of God’s remarkable mercy for us, revealed in Christ who poured out his life in love on the cross and raises us to life with him, now and in the future. The season ends as the sun sets on April 21, Maundy Thursday. Thus, Palm/Passion Sunday, April 17, is part of the Lenten season. The Three Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy or Great Saturday (sometimes referred to in the Latin as the “Triduum,” meaning “three days”) mark our passage with Christ into a different way of experiencing and understanding life in this world.

Why did Lent come into existence?

The earliest Christian celebration was Sunday: the day of the Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Indeed, every Sunday, including every Sunday in Lent, is a celebration of Christ’s risen presence in creation, the church, and the Christian. Thus, there is to be no fasting on Sundays in Lent. The second major festival to emerge among Christians was an annual celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead close to the time of Passover (on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the vernal or spring equinox). The ancient Christian term for that day was Pascha, the Greek translation of the Hebrew pesach, or passover. Not long after Christians began to keep an annual feast of the Lord’s resurrection in the Spring, they began to celebrate — in Jerusalem — his death and then his last supper. A supper, a betrayal, a trial, his death by crucifixion, and his resurrection into the life of God became the nucleus of the earliest and central Christian celebration: the Three Days.

In his letter to the Christians at Rome, St. Paul speaks of baptism as a dying and a continual rising with Christ into “newness of life” (Romans 6:1-11). Early Christians recognized the relationship between celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ at Pascha and the celebration of baptism, of welcoming people into the “body of Christ,” his visible and public presence in the world. Thus, the weeks of Lent emerged as a time to prepare those who would be baptized and communed at the Easter Vigil on Great Saturday. Lent also became the time for the already baptized to reflect on their faithfulness to the baptismal covenant. Since some would be baptized at Easter and the baptized would renew their baptismal promises, Lent emerged as a time set aside for baptismal preparation. While some contemporary Christians may experience Lent as six weeks focused on the death of Jesus and the forgiveness of personal sin (that viewpoint emerged in the Middle Ages and continues among some Christian communions today), the six weeks of Lent first emerged, quite simply, as a time to prepare for baptism and baptismal renewal.

A baptismal retreat

Lent is intended to be our retreat as we prepare to renew the baptismal covenant at Easter. Lent is the time when we help our brothers and sisters prepare to be marked in baptism as public servants of Jesus Christ and his central message: the coming of God’s reign of “justice, peace, and joy in the Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Thus, the biblical readings and preaching, the hymns and prayers, the colors and simplicity of the worship space for each Sunday and weekday Mass in Lent serve a form of spiritual direction. They have been carefully selected to help us come to the baptismal font in which we are born as Christ’s colorful, diverse, ordinary, struggling, doubtful, steadfast, odd, singing, joyful, questioning, trusting, loving sisters and brothers.

Practices During Lent

Throughout the season of Lent, we engage in a number of practices which enable us to enter more deeply into rhythm of the forty days. At the beginning of every Sunday Mass during Lent, we hear the Ten Commandments proclaimed and then ask for God’s mercy. We hear Jesus’ call to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength … and love one’s neighbor as oneself.” We are called to recognize the truth: that we forget or refuse to recognize our dependency on God as well as our responsibilities toward our neighbors. We keep silence so that we can be honest with ourselves, with our failings – yet this communal confession ends with the announcement of God’s mercy and forgiveness. This Penitential Order (BCP 350-353) holds together in our lives our yearning for transformation and God’s forgiving and empowering energy. With many other Christians, our parish celebrates the Stations of the Cross, an ancient practice which began in Jerusalem during the fourth century. With song, scripture, and prayer, we walk the path that Jesus took from his condemnation to his death and descent from the cross. In this practice of marking the suffering of Jesus, we fold into our prayer all those who suffer unjustly today. We walk the way of the cross, the sign of his self-giving love, so that walking in his love might renew the loving impulses within us. We witness his wounds and ask God to heal us, our relationships, and this world which knows too much of violence and retribution. We pray for the courage and strength to be people who live in God’s holy peace. Lent is also a time in which a good number of people desire to celebrate the Rite of Reconciliation with a priest (BCP 446-452). In this sacramental practice, there is the opportunity to make one’s private confession, recognizing that all ordained ministers of the church hold in absolute confidence whatever is confessed. There is time should the penitent want to engage in conversation concerning their confession or the struggles experienced in life which draw one away from the love of God, neighbor, or self. The priest then announces God’s forgiveness. The Rite of Reconciliation is personal and precious encounter with our failings – which become “real” by speaking them – and the counsel, comfort, and mercy offered by the church’s minister in the name of Christ.

You will find additional Lenten practices at: http://anglicansonline.org/special/lent.html

—Fr. Samuel Torvend, Associate to the Rector for Adult Formation