The curious season of Lent is upon us. It’s one of those seasons beginning on various dates sometime in February or early March. It might be best known for Mardi Gras, the day before Lent begins, when all eyes turn toward New Orleans with its endless parades, outrageous costumes, and non stop partying. The rest of us join in with parties of our own featuring costumes, beads, frivolity and King’s Cakes, somehow ushering in Ash Wednesday as the beginning of Lent. For many Lent is thought to be a time to give up something like eating too much or other bad habits for a few weeks, maybe as penance for having failed to follow through on New Year resolutions. But there must be something more and there is.
For Christians, Lent is quite a different thing altogether. The word itself simply meant ‘springtime’ in ancient English, but for us it means a season of six weeks in which to prepare for Easter, the highest holy day in the Christian calendar. It’s a time observed with a certain solemnity in worship and self examination about what the Christian faith means and how well we live into it. It’s not meant to be a time for sad moping. In fact it is a time of joyful anticipation for renewal of life and hope. Some Christians find it helpful to refrain from food or drink they otherwise enjoy as a way to help focus on self examination and to discern what is really important in their lives. Others may spend more time reading scripture and in spiritual reflection. In truth, many practice the work of Lent more by intention than effort. It doesn’t make them bad Christians, it only shows they are ordinary people.
Ash Wednesday, the first day in Lent, is when smudges of ashes can be seen on the foreheads of otherwise sensible people. The ashes usually received at an altar rail are a reminder that we came into the world with nothing and will leave with nothing. We were formed of dust and to dust we will return. It’s humbling, and leaves no room for hubris. Lent becomes a time to remember that during our few years on earth we have a moral obligation to make God’s kingdom of peace and justice more present in the places we occupy and to bequeath a better way of life to future generations.
Denominations stemming from ancient catholic tradition follow liturgical practices reserved only for Lent. They are a continuation of lenten worship going back to the early church. Episcopalians (Anglicans), Roman Catholics and Lutherans are the most obvious examples. Other denominations stemming from more recent evangelical sources have their own ways more suited to how they worship.
I am an Episcopal priest, and in my denomination we will be invited to observe Lent with these words:
- Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.