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Lent
A Sense of
the Season
The
word Lent means springtime. This word comes
from the same root as lengthen. Daytime lengthens during Lent. The
northern
hemisphere turns toward the sun, the source of life, and winter turns
into
spring. In Hebrew, the word for repentance is the same as the word that
means
to turn, like the turning of the earth to the sun, like the turning of
the soil
before planting.
"Even
now, says the Lord, turn to me." (Joel
2:12) The word sin means separation. We are called to turn from our
separate
selves, from our sin, to come together in community. Self-denial is the
way we
express our repentance. In the lengthening brightness from Ash
Wednesday until
Holy Thursday afternoon, our holy Lent, we turn to God as our source of
life.
Self-denial
is threefold, advises Matthew’s
gospel. We pray: "Go to your room, close your door, and pray to your
Father in
private." We fast: "No one must see you are fasting but your Father."
We give
alms: "Keep your deeds of mercy secret, and your Father who sees in
secret will
repay you." Through the Lenten exercise of prayer, fasting and
almsgiving, we
spring-clean our lives, sharpen our senses, put tomorrow in its place
and
treasure the day at hand.
Why
are there forty days in Lent? It took forty
days for sinfulness to drown in the flood before a new creation could
inherit
the earth. It took forty years for the generation of slaves to die
before the
freeborn could enter the promised land. For forty days Moses and Elijah
and
Jesus fasted and prayed to prepare themselves for a life’s work.
At the
beginning of Lent the bishop calls out
the names of the catechumens who seek to be baptized at Easter. Their
names are
written in the book of the elect, the chosen. God has chosen them, and
they
have chosen to turn to God. Lent is the forty days before the baptism
of the
catechumens. The already baptized can share the excitement and the
struggles of
the elect and rediscover the meaning of baptism in their own lives.
During the
forty days, both catechumens and the faithful journey together to the
holy
font.
We
keep Lent together. We put aside our
business-as-usual to support each other in prayer, fasting and
almsgiving. We
turn to God to enlighten us and purify us throughout the lengthening
brightness
of our holy season of Lent.
"For
now is the acceptable time! Now is the day
of salvation!"
Copyright
© 1997, Archdiocese of Chicago.
Liturgy Training Publications, 1800 North Hermitage Avenue, Chicago IL
60622-1101; 1800-933-1800. Text by Peter Mazar. Art by Rita Corbin.
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