Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
February 18 is Ash Wednesday. Lent ensues. The season of Lent was given its current shape in the 4th century by the Council of Nicea from which we get the Nicean Creed (“Please join me in professing our faith in the words of the Nicean Creed which is found on page 104 of your hymnals”). Lent’s purpose was to focus on catechumens who were preparing for Baptism on Easter. The “Forty Days” of Lent is typified by Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness by the Devil which followed his own Baptism by John the Baptist. There are many other references to the symbolic number of “Forty” and its significance in the Bible. For example, it rained for “Forty Days” when God wanted to cleanse the world and start over in Genesis 7 with the flood. Noah waited for “Forty Days” after it rained before he opened the window of the ark in Genesis 8. Moses was on the mountain with God for “Forty Days” in Exodus 24 & 34. The Israelites spent “Forty” years in the wilderness. Jesus fasted for “Forty Days” in the wilderness. And, Jesus was seen on earth for “Forty Days” after his crucifixion but before his ascension to heaven. Given this wealth of biblical precedents, the practice of being “tested for Forty Days” is well established in the biblical canon and the Council of Nicea’s prescription for a discipline that symbolically represents God’s trials before entering into the Christian faith at Baptism made sense. The 4th century practice largely involved baptizing adults at this time, so prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in preparation for Baptism were practical and helpful disciplines to take up if you are getting ready to be “baptized into Jesus’s death and be raised with Jesus in his resurrection (paraphrase of Romans 6).” Later, when infant baptism became normative as opposed to adult Baptism, Lenten disciplines were adopted by all rather than restricting the disciplines to catechumens. Also, with infant baptism came the practice of “remembering your Baptism” in the Lenten season.
For many, depending on the church you attended as a child, Lent is synonymous with the triad of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. This holy “trio” is thought of as “giving something up” for God in fasting, “being nicer to people in general” as almsgiving, and “talking to God” more in prayer. Too often the rigors of Lent have become another reason to start fad diets and lose weight, or give away those things which clutter our homes to the poor, or pray before meals. All of these practices are good things, but they are not what Lent is about. On the other hand, for those who do not observe Lenten disciplines, it is true that we do not need to “do anything to merit” God’s grace and affection, but in recent years the fact that we do not need to do anything has resulted in a complete lack of Christian spirituality and discipline in the Lenten season as well as in our daily lives.
Lent is about giving something up that is good and even necessary in our lives so that on Easter, when we resume whatever it was that we stopped for Lent, we can receive what we had given up as a gift from God. Lent then is meant to help disciples focus on God’s grace in our daily life and the practices of abstaining from eating, giving more, and prayer help us refocus our lives on those things which are often over looked as originating from God. Essentially, in giving up the “good” things of our lives for Lent, we can receive them anew on Easter and see them as “special” things instead of ordinary things. Lent is about fasting and being uncomfortable with what we have given up. We should be hungry so as to learn the depths of the truth of Jesus’ statement to the devil in his “Forty Day” trial, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Lent is about almsgiving to the point of being uncomfortable so that we can cry out with Isaiah, “Is not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not hide yourself from your own kin (i.e., those who you are giving alms to, the poor and homeless, are all God’s children, we are all family.).” Lent is about praying for an inordinate amount of time so that we can understand what Jesus means by saying, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” The disciplines of Lent should be rigorous enough so as to be unsustainable in the ordinary course of our lives. And, when you resume your ordinary life after Easter those things which you had fasted from will seem like special gifts from God whereas before they were ordinary and gratuitous. When you cease giving alms the recipients of your time and gifts will seem like family and will be missed. When you ease out of your prayer routines the time that you had spent in prayer, which will now be available again, will seem like a special gift from God. The hope of Lent is to see the divine in ordinary things like food, to see family in those who are usually called strangers, and to see time itself as a gracious gift from God which is too precious to squander. This, sisters and brothers in Christ, is how you prepare for eternity with God, by appreciating those people and things for which Jesus endured the suffering of the Passion and pain of the cross for!
Lent is a time that is set apart from the rest of the year. In fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, we are attempting to remember and focus on the great gift that was given to us in Baptism where the heavens were opened up to us, God’s grace fell from the clouds like a dove, and eternity and finitude embraced. Sisters and brothers in Christ, I invite you to the rigors of Lenten disciplines as a way to deepen your understanding of grace, spirituality, and discipleship. If you would like to sit down and discuss how you can take part in the longstanding Christian spirituality of Lent, please contact me through email at carminepernini@gmail.com or call the church office at 732-388-1815. I leave you with a quote from Pope Francis, “Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.”
Grace and peace,
Pastor Pernini
