Growing up the daughter of a born again evangelical and a disenchanted former Catholic I didn’t really get a clear picture of what Lent was meant to be until I was an adult. From my evangelical side I got nothing on Lent. Not even a mention. I knew the Catholic side of my family did things like give up meat on Fridays and went to church a few extra times during the lead up to Easter. There was also this ash on the foreheads thing at the beginning that I did not get at all. Then at some point I was introduced to the idea that people gave up something. Things like chocolate or coffee or for the hardcore maybe TV. This resonated with me as a believer even though I most definitely fell in the evangelical camp. I decided to jump on board usually trying to give up soda (not always succeeding). Sometimes I’d try for sweets or Facebook (this was usually even less successful than soda even with the Sunday pass). I always felt a little better about myself at the end of the forty days (you know for trying and all) and I always gorged on whatever I had fasted when Easter rolled around.
Pretty sure I was missing the point.
I did not have the full story of Lent, its meaning, its history and its purpose.
Lent is not mandated by scripture. You can’t find it in the Bible. Its inception dates back to around 325 AD. It was established as a preparation for holy week and Easter itself. The forty days are meant to mirror Jesus’ period of fasting as told to us in the gospel of Matthew. (see this interesting CT article with some history or this Huffington Article) The practice today varies widely through denominations and individuals but often involves some of the following:
No meat on Fridays
Fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
Sacrificing of something throughout the Lenten period (with some people making an exception on Sundays)
But why?
How did our spiritual forefathers and mothers intend this forty day period to prepare us to celebrate both the death and gloriously world changing resurrection of our Lord and Savior? Because I have this thing about tradition. If continues for its own sake I hate it. However; if it was created and continues to exist for a purpose, like drawing us closer to Jesus, and it can do that then I don’t care if it’s almost two thousand years old – I’m in. And I think if we do Lent the right way it can lead us in to Holy week prepared to truly celebrate the beauty, love and power that is Easter Sunday.
In my research I found this quote from sister Joan Chittister that explains what Lent can be, what it is meant to be better than I can:
Yes, please.
One idea a friend introduced me to several years ago that I have incorporated into my Lenten discipline was not to simply (or maybe at all) take something away from my routine (like soda or social media) but to add something positive. Because fasting certainly has value but so too can working toward a good. So my Lenten commitment could be – saying something kind every day, studying a new topic or learning about an injustice.
But whether it is the giving up or the taking on I don’t think it really matters. It is the mind and heart with which we do it that matters. Can we take these forty days (or really forty six because somehow Sundays aren’t counted) and give over some part of ourselves to the Lord that we have held back that we might “begin anew” and when Easter Sunday dawns can we be ready like never before to celebrate the fact that we are truly saved and truly called to new life filled with hope, purpose and meaning?
I want that.
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