Each year I am surprised by how quickly we move from celebrating our Lord’s birth to the penitential season that is Lent, and this year is no exception. Lent will begin in just a few weeks with Ash Wednesday services on February 22 so I find it appropriate to reflect on its beginning and meaning.

Lent finds its meaning and origin in Easter. From the beginning, the annual remembrance and celebration of our Lord’s resurrection and, consequently of our redemption—Easter—has been the principal feast of the Church, the high point and culmination of the Christian year.

As such, Easter was regarded from the earliest times as the most appropriate time for persons to enter into Christ’s redemption and new life through the sacrament of baptism.

So what are the beginnings of Lent? In the early Church, Christians often suffered hostility and active persecution by their neighbors. Conversion was not taken lightly, for its repercussions echoed in all circles: family, friends, livelihood, politics and social life.

Likewise, the Church needed to clarify the meaning of Christian faith and life so that its members would form a community that could withstand the pressures of an inhospitable environment.

Understanding this need for clarity of faith, the Church required the candidates for baptism, known as catechumens, to undergo a long and rigorous period of training, instruction and scrutiny. The final stage of their preparation came in the last few weeks before Easter when they entered into an especially intense time of fasts and frequent meetings for prayers, instructions, blessings and exorcisms.

What about those Ashes? Two major signs of sorrow and penitence from Old Testament times were the tearing of clothes and the imposition of dirt and ashes over one’s body. These were the outer displays of the strength of one’s inner turmoil and a reminder of the penitent’s totally dependent state. Such behavior was a visible confession that the penitent was made from dust and was nothing apart from the Creator.

Ash Wednesday relates to this tradition and calls believers to a holy Lent. The ashes symbolize our acknowledgment of our status as dependent creatures, living in a fallen world, ourselves touched by mortality and sin, as fragile and insubstantial as ashes without God’s care.

To keep a good and holy Lent means to draw closer to God and one another and to prepare ourselves once again to renew our covenant with God through the reciting of our baptismal vows. Lent is a time to prepare to enter afresh into the mystery of Jesus’ resurrection and our redemption.

My prayer for each of us this season is a good and holy Lent.

Yours in Christ,
Suzanne