|
Tuesday, 12 February 2008 |
To me, the Season of Lent has always seemed like an alarm clock - the church's spiritual alarm clock. My alarm clock at home summons me to the bathroom mirror to see what shaving and personal grooming must precede the day's activities. Lent summons me to a Word of God mirror which reveals how close I am coming - or not coming - to what God has created, sustained, redeemed and enlightened me to be. That Image of God in which we were all created is so easily tarnished in our day to day activities.
As early as the Second Century A.D., Christians observed a forty hour period of fasting and meditation in preparation for the Festival of Easter. Those forty hours involved intense study of human frailty and of the response God has made to human frailty in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Soon the forty hour Lenten period of fasting and meditation extended to an entire week and by 325A.D. Lent was forty days long. Sundays were not fast days so during Lent 36 days were fast days - 36 days being 1/10th of the entire year, Lenten fast days were seen as a tithe. By the 7th Century, the church wanted the fast period to be a full forty days so Lent was again extended. Today Lent lasts a full 40 week days and six Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter.
The number "40" is a reminder of the Israelites forty years of wandering in the wilderness and Jesus' forty days in the wilderness and forty hours in the tomb.
The name "Lent" is the Anglo-Saxon name for the season of spring - a time of growth.
This time of the year, pastors and religion column writers are often asked about the meaning of the Season of Lent. One of the best answers I have heard to that question did not contain the words of a pastor or of a religion writer. Rather they were the words of a little girl who when religion columnist Nancy Manser asked her, "What is Lent?" replied "Lent is when adults wash out their insides."
Very often in life we find ourselves wishing for another chance - wishing we could wash out our insides - cleanse ourselves of the guilt we hold there or the alienation we harbor there. I wish I had another chance to take back an unkind word I said or to say a kind word I failed to say. I wish I had another chance to retake a test I took too lightly the first time I faced it. I wish I could find reconciliation with someone I hurt.
Lent - a good season for washing out our insides and healing hurts - perceived and real. Have a meaningful time in the season which this year leads to our season of spring. This year Good Friday and the first day of spring arrive on the same day. Lent and spring - each in its own way - a time of growth.
 |
Show/Hide comment form
