Understanding Lent

Lent, I have discovered over the years is a special time of the year. It is a critical liturgical season that helps us prepare for the great feast of Easter. My usage of the word ‘critical’ may surprise or upset some of you. Allow me to clarify. I don’t use it here to refer to the state of our mental or physical health for the duration of the season (in fact for a majority of us, Lent isn’t a period of serious prayer and rigorous fasting and penance). ‘Critical’ here means ‘having a decisive importance’.

I suppose we are all aware that the liturgical year comprises of five seasons. They are Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent and Easter. The seasons of Lent and Advent are periods of intense preparations for the great feasts that are to follow. Advent is a four-week long period of preparation to welcome the Saviour in our midst and to recall the great act of God: the Incarnation. Similarly, Lent is a 40 day period of inner preparation to commemorate the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. With this background the importance and special nature of Advent and Lent become evident. The goal of these seasons is clear: preparation for the great feasts of the Incarnation and Resurrection. Hence, their religious observance is very critical.

Lent requires a change in attitude and mannerisms to go along with the nature of the preparation and the mood of the season. The liturgy of Ash Wednesday effectively reflects the nature and mood of lent. Lent is a serious season but it isn’t a morose one. The liturgy of Lent lays emphasis on fasting, prayer and repentance. The readings again and again, and in different words invite us to ‘come back to God’. In the course of the year we probably hardly ever give serious thought to our spiritual life. We could be so tied down by our commitments and responsibilities that the spiritual life becomes a side-business which needs or worse still, gets attention only on Sundays or feast days! Lent therefore once again becomes a critical season. It calls attention to the spiritual life and invites us to set our priorities straight. We are meant for God and to God we must give our due, not in leftovers or in alms but with all our heart, mind and soul. Lent brings on this truth quite emphatically. On the very first day, it hits us with the bombshell: “You are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19).    

Lent is a season of hope. As I was saying earlier, Lent and Advent have certain common characteristics. The atmosphere that these seasons foster is in addition to other things one of hope. Since they are periods of intense preparation for great feasts they invite the believer to look to the feast with hope. This hope is not merely a hope that the season ends soon so that the demands it makes on us are relaxed and the festive celebration obliterates all memories of sacrifices and hardships incurred during the preparation period. I recall my days in the seminary when we would look to Lent with dread. It was that awful time of the year when our already simple food would become over-simplified and austere, not by personal choice but by the external pressure of our superiors. It wasn’t something to look forward to. Instead of helping us grow closer to God it would turn out to be a time when our stomachs rebelled against the impositions and throw tantrums so that we would find it difficult to concentrate on spiritual activities.

The hope that Lent brings is intrinsically tied up to the mystery it contemplates upon and that is the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Lent reminds us that our life is limited. It proclaims to us the great truth that God loves us, without mincing words. The love of God reaches out and reclaims us from the clutches of sin. Sin has no power over us (Rom 6:14). We have been purchased at a price (1 Cor 7:23) and that price is the precious blood of Jesus. The hope that Lent gives us is that suffering and death are not absolute. They are inevitable but they aren’t final and binding. They have been conquered by Jesus though his suffering and death on the cross. The fact that Jesus too suffered grievous pain and finally death ought to fill us with a sense of comfort. Our God is able to empathize with us in our pain for He knows what it is about. The Resurrection of Jesus marks the triumph over sin, suffering and death. It gives us hope that we too will rise like Jesus and overcome the pain, suffering and death that is connected to mortal life.     

Besides fostering hope, Lent is a time for renewal. This is in fact its key character. It is a retreat of sorts. When you come to think of it, retreats are modeled around the season and spirit of Lent. Recall the key characteristics of a retreat: silence, long spans of prayer, moments of praise, worship and thanksgiving, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, sessions on repentance, forgiveness and healing, testimonies, fasting, abstinence.  Perhaps you could add a few more details but you get the general idea. In a retreat there is a preacher or preachers who help you think about life and your relationship with God and others. Their foundation is of course the Word of God and it is the Word of God that challenges, instructs and admonishes us during Lent. In other words, the Word of God does the work of the preacher. It preaches to us directly without a human interpreter. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for instructing, convicting, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16); it is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb 4:12). The readings call us to repentance, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and spiritual growth. In a retreat we are asked to maintain silence so that we can attune ourselves to our conscience and to God’s voice. The mood of Lent encourages silence and reflection. Liturgical changes like omitting the Gloria and Alleluia indicate the introspective and introverted character of the season.

Lent is meant to be lived and not merely speculated upon. At every level, it is a living experience. Even though this article is entitled ‘Understanding Lent’, I do not intend it to remain as words on paper. I hope that it breathes life into the way we approach and live out the season. The aim of ‘understanding’ Lent is that we may live it better. When we understand what something is about we are able to enter deeper into its reality and grasp its core significance. This precisely is my aim although I haven’t said everything about Lent. There is much more to be said. We are nearing the middle mark and it will do us good to sit down for a little evaluation of how we have begun Lent and how we can live the remainder of it.