Beyond Ashes…
LENTEN SEASON: A Moment of God’s Invitation to Return to Him
INTRODUCTION
The service of Ash Wednesday has come and gone. The ashes have
been washed off, but the spirit of the event continues with a forty day of
Lenten walk with the Lord through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The annual
observance of Lent is a special season for each and every one of us. It is a
moment of sober reflection and response to God’s invitation for repentance.
This period goes beyond public show of piety, but interior self-examination;
which ignite in us the thirst to approach God with humility and self-emptiness
and not with the “pharisaic attitude.” Our repentance must come from the heart
as Prophet Joel exclaimed: “Even now, says the Lord, turn and come to me with
all your heart with fasting and weeping and mourning, rip your heart to pieces
and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and
compassionate… ” (Joel 2:12-13). Through
its twofold themes of repentance and baptism, the season of Lent disposes both
the catechumens and the faithful to celebrate the paschal mystery. Catechumens
are led to the sacraments of initiation by means of the rite of election, the
scrutinies, and catechesis. While the faithful on the other hand, listening
more intently to the word of God and devoting themselves to prayer, and are
prepared through a spirit of repentance to renew their baptismal promises. (cf.
Ceremonial of Bishops no. 249).
No wonder Pope Benedict XVI in one of his Lenten homilies avers: "Lent
is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and
listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the evil one.
It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus,
not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening
to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter
in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism."
Bearing this
in mind that we are going to reflect together as we journey with the Lord
within these forty days of spiritual exercise. Before we proceed let us dig
deep a bit into the threshold of the tradition and custom behind this season of
Lent and its significance, then God’s invitation to repentance and Church’s
teaching on the Lenten observances.
HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND OF LENTEN SEASON
The term
“Lent” which we employ to denote the forty days of fasting, prayer and
almsgiving preceding Easter festival of our redemption, originally meant no
more than the spring season. Still it has been used from the Anglo-Saxon period
to translate the more significant Latin term Quadragesima, Quaresima in Italian, and Tessarakosti in Greek, meaning the “forty days”, or more
literally the “fortieth day”. This therefore is an imitation of the Greek name
for Lent tessarakoste (fortieth), a word formed on the analogy of
Pentecost (pentecoste), which last was used for the Jewish festival
before New Testament times. (www.newadvent.org). The custom of this period is
dated to the Apostolic era. That is why some theologians are of the opinion
that the season of Lent was established by the apostles themselves or in the
immediate post-apostolic era at the latest. They assumed this season of fasting was closely connected with
preparation for Easter baptisms - a practice likewise considered to be of
apostolic foundation (cf. Romans 6), and observed everywhere throughout the
Church since its earliest days. Also some of the fathers of the Church
supported this view, for instance St. Leo exhorts his hearers to abstain that
they may “fulfill with their fasts the apostolic institution of the forty
days”. Taking a closer look into most of the ancient sources on the custom of
Lenten season, it reveals a more gradual historical development. While fasting
before Easter seems to have been ancient and widespread, the length of the fast
varied significantly from place to place and across generations. Towards the
latter half of the 2nd century for instance, In Gaul, Irenaeus of
Lyons and there in the North Africa
Tertullian tell us that the preparatory fast lasted one or two days, or forty
hours; commemorating what was believed to be the exact duration of Christ’s
time in the tomb. By the mid-third century, Dionysius of Alexandria speaks of a
fast of up to six days practiced by the devout in his See; and the Byzantine
historian Socrates relates that the Christians of Rome at some point kept a
fast of three weeks. Only following the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. (cf. Peter
Gunning, The Paschal or Lent Fast: Apostolic
and Perpetual (Oxford, UK: John Henry
Parker, 1845, pp. 82-85).
In the light of this, we find in the early years of the fourth
century the first mention of the term tessarakoste which means “fortieth”. This term occurs in the
fifth canon of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Soon after the Council of Nicaea, the theory speculates, this fast
would have been moved from its original position after Theophany and joined to
Easter creating the Lent we know today.
Notably, St. Athanasius in his
festal letter enjoined his flock to observe a forty day fast. And in 339 AD,
while returning from Rome still re-emphasized the obligation to fast. Despite this justified suspicion, there are other indicators
revealing that the Post-Theophany fast may be something more than a late
fabricated legend. As early as the mid-third century, we begin to find
references to a forty-day fasting period that is not specifically connected to
Easter. The earliest of these is found in a series of Homilies on Leviticus composed by Origen, a third-century
Theologian from Alexandria, Egypt. To dissuade Christians from
observing the Jewish Day of Atonement, Origen argues that “we [Christians] have
forty days dedicated to fasting; we have the fourth [Wednesday] and sixth day
[Friday] of the week on which we regularly fast.” (Homilies on Leviticus 10.2:5-6; English translation in Gary Wayne Barkley, Origen: Homilies on
Leviticus: 1-16, Fathers of the Church 83
Washington, DC: Catholic University
of America Press, 1990), pp. 206-207).
However, how this period came to
be forty days duration is believed to be a predominant influence from the
episode of Israelites experience in the Wilderness (cf. Deut 8:2-5; Ps 95:10),
forty days Moses was on the Mount and received the law of God, (cf. Ex 24:18),
forty days that Moses was on the mount after the sin of the Golden Calf, (cf.
Deut 9:18, 25), forty days of Elijah in Horeb, (cf. 1Kgs 19:8), forty days of
Jonah and Nineveh, (cf. Jonah 3:4); and in the Christian Testament (New
Testament), Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights (cf. Matt 4:2), for
forty days after resurrection Christ was on the earth with His disciples. The
number “forty” is mentioned 83 times in the scripture to symbolize trial,
testing or probation.
It is so believed that on
account of this historic events and its importance in the salvation history of
man that the Lenten season is being designated with forty days of prayer,
fasting and almsgiving.
GOD’S
INVITATION TO REPENTANCE
God’s unfathomable
mercy upon humanity cannot be measured. Beginning from creation He has been in
constant communication with man and later in history through the prophets. God
created all and saw that it was beautiful and left the first man – Adam with an
instruction which he could not keep (cf. Gen 3:1-13). Thus, bringing about the
beginning of man’s suffering and death. Just as St. Paul’s epistle to the
Romans will say: that through one man, sin and death entered the world, and
through Christ, life was given back to humanity by the redemptive power of His
paschal mystery. (cf. Rom 5:12-15).
That is why at the appointed time God sent His only begotten Son that whosoever
believed in Him may have eternal life. (cf. Jn 3:16).
In allusion
to God’s invitation to repentance, prophet Ezekiel earlier prophesized, “If a
wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all God’s
decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.
None of his offences will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous
things he has done he will live.” (Ezekiel 18:21-22). Prophet Joel further
cried out: … return to the Lord with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and
mourning. (cf. Joel 2:12-13). This same
proclamation was made by Christ in the New Testament inviting you and I to
repent of our sins for the kingdom of God is at hand. (cf. Matt 4:17). God in
any way does not desire the death of a sinner rather He often give him or her
an opportunity to make amends. The time is here before us to say a total “yes”
to Him who is ever ready to receive us no matter the gravity of our offences as
in the parable of the prodigal son. (cf. Lk 15:11-32). That is why the public
ministry of Christ had the message of repentance at the centre. The act of repentance
is not a matter of season or time, it is a continuous spiritual exercise which
demands an interior self-examination. It is an
acknowledgement that we are sinners in need of a Saviour. One of the clearest
pictures of this message came in the person of John the Baptist, forerunner of
the Messiah. His message was simply, “Repent and be baptized.” He told the people
that they were lost and in need of repentance. This message has not changed
since that time. This same invitation is what the Holy Mother Church presents
before us during this solemn season of Lent, with an invitation to grab it with
sincere observance of the spiritual exercise behind it.
CHURCH’S
TEACHING ON LENTEN OBSERVANCES
The Season
of Lent remains a period for the preparation for the great festival of Easter,
an event which reminds us of the salvation brought about through Christ’s
paschal mystery of passion, death and resurrection. According to the Liturgical
Year General Norms (LYGN) no. 27, the liturgy of this Season prepares both the
catechumens and faithful for the celebration of the paschal mystery by the
various stages of Christian initiation, and recalling of the baptismal promises
as well as doing penance in preparation for Easter respectively.
Within this season in
the Church’s liturgical year, Gloria
is omitted in all Masses with Alleluia and in the Divine Office as well, the Te Deum is as well omitted during the
Office. The weekdays of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Saturday before Palm Sunday
take precedence over the memorials of a saint occurring on a particular day.
(cf. Instructions on the Liturgy of the
Hours no. 237 – 239, pp. xiv-xv). During this period except for some
genuine need or pastoral advantage Votive Masses and daily Masses for the Dead
are not permitted. Altar is not decorated with flowers during Lent, while
musical instruments are not used except on Laetare
Sunday and for Solemnities and feasts or to sustain singing.
In addition
to these stipulated guidelines, the Church urges us to try as much as we could
to avoid every occasion of sin, to repent and return to God by a good sacramental confession and do
appropriate penance both those imposed at confessional and other voluntary acts
of penance. Regular attendance at Stations of the Cross every Wednesday and
Friday is highly encouraged. The universal Church law also stipulates fasting
and abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Bishop’s
conference on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. (cf. Canon 1251). The Canon
further states that the law of abstinence binds those who have completed their
fourteenth year of age, while the law for fasting binds those who have
completed their sixteenth year of age and have not reached sixty years of age.
Above all the pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by
reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are
taught the true meaning of penance. (cf. Canon 1252). Following the Church’s
teaching on the Lenten observances, penance and abstinence exercising within
this moment in the liturgical life of the Church point to: recalling the memory of the
passion and death of the Lord, sharing in Christ’s suffering, as an expression
of inner conversion and as a form of reparation for sin.
CONCLUSION
The code of
Canon law states clearly that all Christ’s faithful are obliged by divine law,
each in his or her own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined
together in a certain common practice of penance…. On these days Christ’s
faithful are in special manner to devote themselves to prayer, to engage in
works of piety and charity, and to deny themselves, by fulfilling their
obligations more faithfully and especially by observing the fast and abstinence
which the canons prescribe. (Canon 1249). With this ecclesiastical injunction
in mind, we are bound by conscience for our spiritual growth and sanctification
of our souls to keep to this rules, not for the sake of keeping but reflecting
soberly over the mysteries surrounding them.
As we journey with the universal Church within
these forty days of prayer, fasting and abstinence let us prayerfully remind
God of our weakness with the words of St. Gregory the Great: “Remember, Lord,
though frail we be, by your own kind hand were we made; and help us, lest our
frailty cause your great name to be betrayed”. (An Extract from a Hymn composed by him, used for the Season of
Lent, Divine Office Vol. II p. 572*).
Finally, my
dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us once more pause, ponder and remind
ourselves of these words by Fulton J. Sheen, "Lenten practices of giving
up pleasures are good reminders that the purpose of life is not pleasure. The
purpose of life is to attain to perfect life, all truth and undying ecstatic
love – which is the definition of God. In pursuing that goal we find happiness.
Pleasure is not the purpose of anything; pleasure is a by-product resulting
from doing something that is good. One of the best ways to get happiness and
pleasure out of life is to ask ourselves, 'How can I please God?' and, 'Why am
I not better?' It is the pleasure-seeker who is bored, for all pleasures
diminish with repetition." Wishing you all a spirit-filled Lenten Season.
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