Lent was derived from the Anglo-Saxon word
Lencten,
meaning spring. In France the season is called
Careme,
and in Italy it is
Quarestima, both derived
from the Latin Quadragesima.
Lent in the Western Churches was originally a period of forty days
of fasting and penitence, readying the Christian soul for the great feast on
the ensuing Easter Sunday. This is held as a period of sober reflection,
self-examination, and spiritual redirection.
The Lent
begins on
Ash Wednesday and goes for forty days, excluding the Sundays,
because Sundays are always the joyful celebration of the Resurrection. It
ends on the Good Friday. However, Lent is a forty-two day period in Eastern
Churches and begins on the Monday preceding the Easter by forty two days .
This makes it clear that they don't have Ash Wednesday. With the Easter
being a movable feast, Lent begins in different years on different days in
either February or March.
But why this Forty Day period?
Certainly the number forty has long had a symbolic importance in religion.
Moses and Elias spent forty days in the wilderness; the Jews wandered forty
years searching for the Promised Land; Jonah gave the city of Nineveh forty
days' grace in which to repent. And
Jesus
retreated into the wilderness and fasted for forty days to prepare for his
ministry. It was for Him
a time of contemplation, reflection, and preparation. So by observing Lent,
most Christians join Jesus
on His
retreat.
The Lenten
period of forty days owes its origin to the Latin word Quadragesima,
originally signifying forty hours. This referred to forty hours of complete
fasting which preceded the Easter celebration in the early Church. The main
ceremony was the baptizing of the initiates on Easter Eve, and the fast was
a preparation to receive this sacrament. Later, the period from Good Friday
until Easter Day was extended to six days, to correspond with the six weeks
of training, necessary to instruct the converts who were to be baptized.
A strict
schedule was adhered to in the teaching of the converts. In Jerusalem near
the end of the fourth century, classes were held throughout seven weeks of
Lent for three hours each day. With the acceptance of Christianity as the
state religion of Rome in the 4th century, its character was endangered by
the great influx of new members. To combat the hazard, the Lenten fast and
practices of self renunciation were required of all Christians. The less
zealous of the converts were thus brought more securely into the Christian
fold.
Sometimes
before the year 330 A.D. the duration of Lent had been fixed at forty days
to correspond to Christ's
forty days in the desert. It was evident quite early that a six-week Lent
contained only thirty-six days - since Sunday is never a fast day. Gradually
four more days were added to the beginning of Lent. The first evidence of
this increase is in the Gelasian Sacramentary of the early eighth century.
In time the
emphasis of the season turned from preparation for baptism to more
penitential aspects of penance. The sorrows and sufferings of
Christ
were shared by the self-denying Christian. Persons guilty of notorious sins
spent the time performing public penances. Only at the end of Lent were they
publicly reconciled with the Church. During the Middle Ages the sinners were
accepted back in an elaborate ceremony.
Then penance
came to be associated during this period for common people as well. And Lent
became the way of penance. It is good for us to undertake acts of penance in
sorrow for our sins, our failure to acknowledge and to love
God
in Himself,
in others, in ourselves. The traditional forms of penance, fast and
abstinence, are to be observed. The habit of more personal forms of penance
is certainly to be encouraged. Not only is penance appropriate as an
expression of sorrow for sin, but it also helps us to be less attached to
the material things of this world. Penance helps us to put things in proper
perspective. The way of Lent is also the way of good works, the way of
loving service of others.
