The season of Lent is almost here. Ash Wednesday is next week! For most, Lent brings to mind giving
something up, fish on Fridays, increased darkness, and a more somber mood in
church. It is true that Lent is a
particularly penitential season as we prepare to celebrate the passion of Jesus
and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
But, that is not its sole purpose.
In the early years of the Church, Lent was a time of
preparation for those who would be entering the Church at Easter. The forty days of Lent were meant to recall
other forty-day or forty-year periods from the bible – the forty days and
nights of rain causing the Flood in Genesis, the Israelites’ forty years of
wandering in the desert after captivity in Egypt, Jesus spending forty days in
the desert prior to beginning his public ministry.
Viewed from this lens, the forty-day period of Lent can take
on a sense of purification and change.
We are readying ourselves to celebrate more fully at Easter. We are encouraged to participate in the
sacrament of reconciliation during Lent for this purpose. We are encouraged to make a positive change
in our lives, whether that means giving up a bad habit or adding a new, good
one.
Though we enter into this season with a sense of
(figurative) sackcloth and (literal) ashes, try to think of ways in which you
can make this Lent a season of positivity rather than simply dwelling on the
negative aspects that sometimes seem to take center stage during this time.
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