Lent
Lent is just around the corner, believe it or not.
So what is Lent?
That might seem like an easy question to answer for most of us, but Lent has a long, tenuous history, like most other seasons in the Church year. The calendar should never be viewed as static, but rather as a means of encountering the Gospel. It is historical and eschatological, and it enables us to “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” We live the calendar by means of anamnesis, or “active remembering.”
The Church year as we know it has evolved over the centuries. It has evolved locally, with one’s geographic location dictating some of the celebrations and observances as they all hinged around the major christological feasts. It has also evolved in terms of complexity, beginning very simply, gradually complicating, and then encountering simplifying reforms (the latest example of such being the reforms instituted after the Second Vatican Council, although this is not the first example of a simplifying reform in the calendar).
So what of Lent? In the current calendar, Lent is the 40 days before Easter that are characterized by fasting, almsgiving, acts of penance, and other forms of disciplined spiritual devotion. Liturgically, the season of Lent is marked by the absence of alleluias, the Gloria, joyful music, and flowers and decorations in churches. In current practice, the emphasis of the season is not necessarily on the Passion and death of the Lord, but on human mortality and sin that are transformed by God’s redemptive love in Christ. Historically, Lent developed out of a practice of fasting after the Epiphany in honor of Christ’s 40 days of fasting and temptation in the desert. It later evolved as a season of preparation for baptismal candidates who would be received into the Church at Easter. This practice soon became connected with the expulsion and restoration of penitents. By the 4th century in Jerusalem the season of Lent became a six week season of penance and preparation, and this was adopted in Roman churches by the 7th century.
Lent continues to be an intense season of preparation for candidates and catachumens who will be received into the Church at Easter. It is also a season of preparation for all Christians that enables us to more fully enter the mysteries of our redemption at Easter.
(As Lent is a season of preparation, I never quite understood the former Roman practice of the Septuagesima, pre-Lenten Sundays. Why should a season of preparation require a season of preparation?)
Now would be a good time to begin planning what we will do this Lent. What will we sacrifice? What disciplines will we take up?
In honor of the last Sunday before the beginning of our Lenten observance, I put some flowers at my shrine this week.
Pax et bonum.
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Thom–great post (and I am sorry you were feeling poorly and alone after the teeth extraction).
I used to feel the same way about the “Gesimas” as you. But after attending a Byzantine Catholic parish for over 10 years, where pre-Lenten period is really focused on, I can tell you that it was good to have them as a reminder: “The Great Fast is coming.” Now I am not sure about the thematic significance of the Gesima Sundays in relation to Lent, but in the East they are very thoughtfully and usefully placed on the 5 Sundays before the Great Fast starts.
1st Sunday (11th Sunday before Pascha)-Sunday of Zaccheus- “Hurry, come down, I mean to stay at your house today. I repent and give restitution. Today salvation has come to this house. I have come to search and save what is lost.”
Theme: We’re wandering aimlessly without Christ, he comes to us and bids us repent and be saved. The announcement is made, the Fast is coming.
2nd Sunday (10th Sunday before Pascha)-Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee- “I give you thanks that I am not like this man. O God be merciful to me a sinner. The humble shall be exalted and the exalted shall be humbled.”
Theme: We are to follow the example of the publican, not the pharisee, when we begin the fast. And just so that we will not be puffed up by fasting, the week after this Sunday is “fast free,” meaning that there is no fasting on Wednesday and Friday as there usually is.
3rd Sunday (9th Sunday before Pascha)-Sunday of the Prodigal Son- “I will arise and go to my father. I have slaved for you for years and you never even gave me a kid goat to have with my friends. This son of mine was dead, and is alive, was lost, and now is found.”
Theme: Again, we must be like the prodigal and during the Fast, humble ourselves and return to our father, who rejoices that we come home.
4th Sunday-(8th Sunday before Pascha)-Sunday of Meat-Fare-(The Last Judgement)- “I was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, in prison and you …took care of me…did not care for me. When Lord, were you…as often as you did it, did not do it, to the least of these you did it to me.”
Theme: We must not refrain from doing good to others, no matter the cost or who it is, as it is Christ that we are doing it to. Remember the consequences and act. This is the last day that meat is eaten.
5th Sunday (7th Sunday before Pascha)-Sunday of Cheese-Fare/Forgiveness Sunday-(The explusion of Adam and Eve from Paradise)- “When you fast do not look glum like the hypocrites do, wash you face, comb your hair, so no one sees but your Father and he will reward you.”
Theme: On this final Sunday, the day before the first day of Great Lent, we are told how to fast, a fasting that is acceptable to the Father. And we remember that Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, and that at the end of the Fast, they, like we someday, got the reward of the heavenly Banquet forever. This is the last day dairy products are eaten. In the late afternoon at Vespers, midway through, the singing switches to the Lenten tone, used only on the weekdays of Lent, the vestments and hangings change from light to dark. And the end, after Lenten hymn and prostrations, we ask each other for forgiveness for the wrongs we have committed in the last year and exchange the kiss of peace, as Paschal hymns are sung. Where there is forgiveness, it is already Pascha. The Great Fast has begun.
Great post, Thom!! You know, we’re not required to give up something for Lent and to take something on for Lent. It’s great if people do both and highly commendable, but it’s not required of us to do both. There are other wonderful tasks, in which you mention, for us to do on our Lenten journey, such as praying, fasting, almsgiving, and penance.
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I’m trying to limit my capitalistic tendencies this Lent. Eating out less, not buying unnecessary crap, and what-have-you. Last year I gave up Facebook.
I’m hoping that “giving up” something altogether helps to lessen its power over us after Lent. I think of Lent as a time of idol-smashing. Then we’re left with nothing but the God who is really God. Whew.
I love the music during Lent, which is ironically counter-intuitive to the season LOL. Ah, well.
I love Lent. It gives us the opportunity to live into the Passion, and the music Eric mentions enables this.
I really like your shrine.
I guess my goal this Lent is to try and move closer to God through prayer and Scripture. Sometimes my spiritual life is what doesn’t happen while I’m making other plans. If that makes any sense.
John, do the pre-Lenten Sundays in the Byzantine liturgy take on a penitential flavor, or are they still “ordinary time,” (or the Eastern equivalent)?
Emily, indeed, and thanks.
Eric, I’ve begun adopting minimalism generally, so I don’t think I can count that as part of my Lenten observance, although it’s an excellent idea. As far as the music goes, it doesn’t need to be counter-intuitive. Music can be beautiful and moving and not be “joyful.”
Davis, very right.
Melody, thanks. And what you said makes perfect sense; count me in on that.
Thom–they don’t actually, other than the theme itself. All Sundays are a “little Pascha” and even in Lent don’t have a true penitential character the way the Roman rite does. Bright vestements are always worn, with the exception of the third Sunday of Lent, which is Cross Veneration Sunday, when the cross, wreathed in flowers or sometimes basil, is placed in the center of the church for the faithful to venerate. The priest does wear dark (usually dark red) vestments that day. Dark vestments are worn only on Lenten weekdays.
On the 5 Sundays of Lent, the liturgy of St. Basil is used, rather than the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. It’s longer, and more solemn. The Eucharistic prayer is especially beautiful.
One real difference between the Byzantine East and the Latin West during Lent is that the “Alleluja” is not supressed. In fact, in Lent, “Alleluja” replaces some antiphons that are used during the rest of the year.
I did know that about the liturgy of St. Basil; the rest was news to me. Thank you very much!