Beginning on Wednesday of last week, Catholics began the observance of Lent, the forty-day period of preparation for Easter. As is typically the case, Masses on Ash Wednesday were quite crowded, and many people around campus could be seen with ashes on their foreheads. It is rare, however, to see so many people at Mass on any other day of Lent. It appears that in recent decades, the meaning behind the various customs and traditions of this liturgical season has become quite obscured, leading to its reduced significance in the eyes of many Catholics.
In its earliest Christian form, Lent served as an intense preparation period of prayer and fasting for converts to Christianity, who would be baptized at the Easter vigil. The period lasted forty days, on account of the number’s biblical significance. Christ fasted for forty days in the desert, Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai, and the Hebrews wandered for forty years in their journey to the Promised Land. The number forty is also seen in many other significant Old Testament narratives. After Christianity was legalized and became increasingly more practiced, the Lenten fast became required of all Christians to show solidarity with the catechumens, and for their own spiritual benefit during the period leading up to Easter.
Traditionally (and occasionally still today), when the ashes were applied to one’s forehead, they were told: “remember, man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return,” echoing the words which God spoke to Adam and Eve upon their exile from Paradise. The purpose of the entire season of Lent is essentially contained in this admonition, as its associated practices (namely prayer, fasting, and almsgiving) serve to remind Catholics of the passing nature of all worldly things, including their own earthly lives, and their dependence on God’s grace for salvation.
Through prayer and fasting, Catholics are led to enter more deeply into a relationship with Christ, and to remove from their lives all disordered affections for earthly things. Prayer, essentially, is the conversation of the soul with God, through which one comes to know Him and the immensity of His love for mankind, and thereby become more attuned and conformed to His will. Through a greater knowledge of God, man also comes to knowledge of his own fallen nature and dependence on Divine grace, without which he is indeed only dust, incapable of effecting his own salvation.
Fasting aids in this process of making the individual love God above all things, as it takes man away from the worldly things for which he may have an inordinate love. Through voluntary self-denial, whether it be of food or some other object, one ideally comes to realize the fleeting nature of the material world and attains by grace to a greater freedom from disordered love of created things. The material, sensible world is not evil; on the contrary, it is quite good, having been brought into existence by God, who is Goodness itself. However, it is necessary for Catholics to view creation not as something to be loved for its own sake, but rather as a means to the glorification of its Creator. Thus, fasting leads man neither to hate nor despise earthly things, but rather to make proper use of them to draw closer to Christ.
Prayer and fasting serve to cultivate a love of God in the soul, which becomes practical and manifest through recourse to the sacraments and spiritual acts of faith, hope, and charity, but also in a special way toward one’s neighbor through the practice of almsgiving. Once a person has been united to Christ and emptied of self-love, there inevitably arises a greater desire to carry out His will; He tells his disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15), and all Catholics are familiar with His commandment to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. True charity or friendship with God always culminates in a greater love for others, which can be made manifest in both great and small matters.
Thus the season of Lent, when properly understood, serves as a wonderful means to draw closer to Christ in preparation for the Paschal Triduum. The Lenten season, and the penitential practices associated with it are not meant to be miserable, but rather to show Catholics that true joy consists neither in man’s own self, nor in the fleeting things of this world, but rather in friendship with God. Only through recognizing one’s own nothingness and need for grace and through acknowledging Christ’s primacy in every aspect of life can one come to truly know and appreciate His love for humanity, made so clearly manifest through His Institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, His Passion on Good Friday, and His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
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