Lent begins today. The Lenten season asks us to change our state of mind and state of body as we approach Easter. For forty days, we are invited by centuries of tradition to pass through a wilderness of mortality, penitence, and transformation.
The practice of Lent formally began in the fourth century, though of course people have engaged in periods of fasting and reflection as a spiritual practice for much longer than that. Some historical records indicate that the earliest Christians from the time of the ancient Apostles began a practice of fasting in the days preceding Easter. After the Nicean Council, Christians agreed on a fast of forty days during which time Christians would eat one meal a day after 3:00 pm free of meat, fish, or dairy. Sundays would not be counted as fast days, as Sundays were always to be days of celebration. Thus, although Lent requires forty days of fasting, there are forty-six days in the Lenten season.
In the early days of Lent, new converts and those who had left the faith for a time used this period to prepare spiritually for baptism on the eve of Easter. Later, Pope Gregory selected the forty-sixth day prior to Holy Thursday as the official beginning of Lent and marked the occasion with the ceremony of placing ash on the forehead of the penitent. These penitent disciples left the mark of the cross on their foreheads until it faded through wear. Over time, the practice of fasting changed and eased until the strict limits of fasting were set aside in favor of more personal expressions of sacrifice, such as giving up a comfort or luxury during the Lenten season. Some denominations still observe a fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Among our fellow Christian denominations, Lent is widely observed by the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Episcopal, and Methodist churches. Lent has a mixed history in other protestant movements, and especially in the evangelical movement. Some protestant leaders of past centuries rejected Lent as non-scriptural and as encouraging an attitude, sometimes veering into superstition, that our righteous works rather than the grace of Jesus Christ will bring about salvation. However, in recent decades, more Christians have turned toward the liturgical calendar, perhaps to anchor faith in an increasingly secular sea, or perhaps to establish boundaries in a time when boundaries dissolve.
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday. Traditionally, the palm fronds from the previous year’s celebration of Palm Sunday are burned, and the resulting ashes are mixed with holy water or consecrated oil. Ash Wednesday thus links the previous year with the new year. In a real sense, the Lenten season is the death and rebirth of the liturgical year. Let’s follow along.
We approach to receive the mark of Ash Wednesday. The ashes remind us of our mortality. “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” the penitent hears as a cross is smeared onto his forehead. These were the words Adam and Eve heard as they stood at the threshold of the wilderness. Behind them, Eden remained under the light of God’s eternal smile. Before them lay the vast shadowed world and all it contains and will contain. In that wilderness we will die.
The ashes also remind us of a time of mourning. Christ our Lord has died; our sin, inasmuch as we cling to our pride and our power to hide our fault, the cause. “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping.” We grieve with the saints present at Jesus’s tomb. We grieve for the suffering of innocence, we grieve to lose our Friend, and we grieve for the harm we work in the world, and for the impotence of our feeble righteousness. So mourned Rachel. So mourned Job. As disciples, we mourn with them at the foot of the Cross.
Thus anointed by ashes, as penitent disciples we begin the preparations for Easter. Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday, is the day when those newly converted Christians following the historical liturgical calendar will be baptized, and those formerly converted Christians will renew their commitment to Jesus Christ. Throughout Lent, day by day we let the old self face its fear of death. Oh, it is painful to sweep away the things that hide death from us. When food appears on our table each morning, we forget that death could be near. But now our hunger, whether for food or something else, reminds us that death awaits all. Let our fears fall away as we turn our resolve to the strength of the Cross. How beautiful to be born anew with Jesus Christ on resurrection morning.
This penitent attitude is appropriate for one who relies entirely on the merits, mercy, and grace of a Savior. And yet, our penitence is not penance. It is preparation. Forty days of preparation echo the forty days that Jesus spent in his wilderness. He, like us, faced temptation. He, unlike us, endured it. When Jesus emerged from the wilderness, he had cast aside the captivity of fear, and so his heart was free to give the love that would save us all. His wilderness became a place of strength and transformation.
So today for Ash Wednesday, when the king cake of your Mardi Gras celebration is just a memory and the leftover pancakes from Shrove Tuesday are getting stale, join us at Wayfare as we step into the wilderness. We will observe the Lenten season with essays, poems, and artwork posted on each Tuesday of Lent. Our first lenten essay, by Susan Hinckley, can be found below.
During Holy Week we will have daily offerings of poetry, music, and art. We will try to let our old lives die away, to cast away our fear so that we may be transformed by love. Let us find new life through Easter.
Rachel Jardine is an Associate Editor at Wayfare. She mothers her children in San Antonio, Texas and practices law.
