The season of Lent
has not been well observed in much of evangelical Christianity,
largely because it was associated with "high church" liturgical
worship that some churches were eager to reject. However, much
of the background of evangelical Christianity, for example the
heritage of John Wesley, was very "high church." Many of the
churches that had originally rejected more formal and deliberate
liturgy are now recovering aspects of a larger Christian
tradition as a means to refocus on spirituality in a culture
that is increasingly secular. Originating in the fourth century
of the church, the season of Lent spans 40 weekdays beginning on
Ash Wednesday and climaxing during Holy Week with Holy Thursday
(Maundy Thursday), Good Friday, and concluding Saturday before
Easter. Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those
who were to be baptized, a time of concentrated study and prayer
before their baptism at the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the
Resurrection of the Lord early on Easter Sunday. But since these
new members were to be received into a living community of
Faith, the entire community was called to preparation. Also,
this was the time when those who had been separated from the
Church would prepare to rejoin the community.
Today,
Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter.
Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that
occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and
are referred to as the Sundays in Lent. The number 40 is connected with
many biblical events, but especially with the forty days Jesus spent in
the wilderness preparing for His ministry by facing the temptations that
could lead him to abandon his mission and calling. Christians today use
this period of time for introspection, self examination, and repentance.
This season of the year is equal only to the Season of Advent in
importance in the Christian year, and is part of the second major
grouping of Christian festivals and sacred time that includes Holy Week,
Easter, and Pentecost. Lent has traditionally been marked by penitential
prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Some churches today still observe a
rigid schedule of fasting on certain days during Lent, especially the
giving up of meat, alcohol, sweets, and other types of food. Other
traditions do not place as great an emphasis on fasting, but focus on
charitable deeds, especially helping those in physical need with food
and clothing, or simply the giving of money to charities. Most Christian
churches that observe Lent at all focus on it as a time of prayer,
especially penance, repenting for failures and sin as a way to focus on
the need for God’s grace. It is really a preparation to celebrate God’s
marvelous redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live,
and hope for, as Christians.
Carnival, which comes from a Latin phrase meaning "removal of meat," is
the three day period preceding the beginning of Lent, the Sunday,
Monday, and Tuesday immediately before Ash Wednesday, which is the first
day of the Lenten Season (some traditions count Carnival as the entire
period of time between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday). The three days
before Ash Wednesday are also known as Shrovetide ("shrove" is an Old
English word meaning "to repent"). The Tuesday just before Ash Wednesday
is called Shrove Tuesday, or is more popularly known by the French term
Mardi Gras, meaning "Fat Tuesday," contrasting to the fasting during
Lent. The entire three day period has now come to be known in many areas
as Mardi Gras. Carnival or Mardi Gras is usually a period of
celebration, originally a festival before the fasting during the season
of Lent. Now it is celebrated in many places with parades, costumes,
dancing, and music. Many Christians’ discomfort with Lent originates
with a distaste for Mardi Gras, which in some cultures, especially the
Portuguese culture of Brazil and the French culture of Louisiana, has
tended to take on the excesses of wild and drunken revelry. There has
been some attempt in recent years to change this aspect of the season,
such as using Brazilian Carnival parades to focus on national and
cultural history. Many churches now observe Mardi Gras with a church
pancake breakfast or other church meal, eating together as a community
before the symbolic fasting of Lent begins.
Ash Wednesday, the seventh Wednesday before Easter Sunday, is the first
day of the season of Lent. Its name comes from the ancient practice of
placing ashes on worshippers’ heads or foreheads as a sign of humility
before God, a symbol of mourning and sorrow at the death that sin brings
into the world. It not only prefigures the mourning at the death of
Jesus, but also places the worshipper in a position to realize the
consequences of sin. The liturgical season of Lent coincides with
spring, calling to mind the new life and growth, the hope and change
that should characterize this time of prayer, penance and conversion.
This is the season of initiation into the grace-life of the Church. For
40 days, the Church invites us to start afresh.
…Just as Nature renews herself every spring, so during the Church’s
spring we are encouraged to begin anew with the catechumens. We prepare
for the renewal of our baptism, we suffer with Christ for our sins, we
are buried with Him so that we may also arise with Him to a new life of
grace and glory. ~ Therese Mueller ("Our Children’s Year of Grace")
The word Lent is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word lengthen or lencten
meaning "spring." We are "to spring" into action, to do the tasks of the
season, to prepare for the new growth and graces that overflow from
Easter. Spring is the most important season for a farmer, for it
determines what crops he will plant. Once decided, he prepares the soil
thoroughly and plants the seed carefully, hoping that the seed buried
deep in the soil will produce an abundant crop. On Palm Sunday, the very
threshold of his death and Resurrection, Our Lord assured his followers
that “unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains
just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. The man
who loves his life loses it, while the man who hates his life in this
world preserves it to life eternal. If anyone would serve me, let him
follow me; where I am, there will my servant be.” (Jn 12: 24-26) Let us
renew our Baptism during this Lenten spring, joyfully dying to self in
order to become that fruitful grain of wheat.
The color used in the sanctuary for most of Lent is purple or dark
violet. These colors symbolize both the pain and suffering leading up to
the crucifixion of Jesus as well as the suffering of humanity and the
world under sin. But purple is also the color of royalty, and so
anticipates through the suffering and death of Jesus the coming
resurrection and hope of newness that will be celebrated in the
Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Some church traditions change the
sanctuary colors to red for Maundy Thursday, a symbol of the disciples
and through them the community of the church. Since Eucharist or
communion is often observed on Maundy Thursday in the context of
Passover, the emphasis is on the gathered community in the presence of
Jesus the Christ. Traditionally, the sanctuary colors of Good Friday are
black, symbolizing the darkness brought into the world by sin. It also
symbolizes death, not only the death of Jesus but the death of the whole
world under the burden of sin. In this sense, it also represents the
hopelessness and the endings that come as human beings try to make their
own way in the world without God. (See The Days of Holy Week). Black is
used through Holy Saturday, although it is always replaced by white
before sunrise of Easter Sunday.
