LENT: A DESERT PILGRIMAGE
THROUGH THE CROSS TO THE RESURRECTION
Presented by Ben Moore at the Aloha Lecture Series on February 27, 2012
“Being weak, we need external reminders, symbols, and signs.
Of course there is always the danger that these external symbols may become
ends in themselves and instead of being mere reminder become in popular opinion
the very content of Lent…Properly understood, however, these customs constitute
that “belt” which connects the spiritual effort to the totality of life…The
spiritual tragedy of secularism is that it forces us into a real religious
“schizophrenia” –dividing our life into two parts: the religious and the
secular, which are less and less interdependent. Thus a spiritual effort is
needed in order to transpose the traditional customs and reminders, the very
means of our Lenten effort.” – Schmemann, Great Lent
I.
What is Lent?
a. 40
days beginning on Ash Wednesday that climaxes during Holy Week (April 2-7). It
originated in the 4th century, and has been a significantly spiritual
time for billions of Christians throughout history. Lent comes from an Old English word meaning “to lengthen”,
referring to the lengthening of days during the Spring season.
b. The
Church Calendar: shaped around the life of Christ. Lent is sandwiched between
Christmas and Easter.
c. Ash
Wednesday
i. Its
name comes from the ancient practice of placing ashes on worshippers’ heads or
foreheads as a sign of humility before God, a symbol of mourning and sorrow at
the death that sin brings into the world. It is a day to reflect on our
mortality, our brokenness, and our need for God.
d. Holy
Week
i. Palm
Sunday (entry into Jerusalem), Maundy Thursday (The Last Supper), Good Friday
(Crucifixion), Holy Saturday (Waiting), Easter (Resurrection).
II.
Understanding Lent as a Desert Experience
Deuteronomy
8:2-10: “And you shall remember the
whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the
wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know
what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he
humbled you and let you hunger
and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that
he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by
every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
a. Desert
as a place of transformation
i. The
desert has rich symbolism in the Bible as a place of transformation.
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Noah is told to start
building a boat in the desert.
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Noah floats for 40 days on
the “desert” of the sea.
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The earth is purged of
wickedness and evil.
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Abram is comfortable in
Ur.
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Abram is called by God to
leave Ur and journey into the desert.
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God makes his covenant
with Abraham.
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Israel is in captivity in
Egypt.
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Moses leads Israel through
the wilderness for 40 years.
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Israel settles in the
Promised Land.
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Christ is baptized by John
the Baptist.
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Christ is led by the
Spirit into the desert for 40 days to be tempted by the Devil.
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Christ begins his
ministry.
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Epiphany
|
Lent
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Easter
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b. Desert
as place of preparation.
i. Jesus
went into the desert to prepare himself for his ministry.
ii. The
Orthodox describe Lent as, “The Spring Time of Renewal…an opening flower of
life.” All Christians in some form or fashion celebrate Easter, and Lent
prepares us to celebrate Easter with more unction and vibrancy. Just as the
bitterness of the cruxifixion made the resurrection all that more sweet, the
discomfort of Lent makes Easter all that more grand and significant.
c. Desert
as a journey into the depth of our humanity.
i. In
the desert we begin to recognize our need, and how far we are from God. The
absence of distractions calls attention to the fact that there’s something not
quite right within us. The desert strips one bare of all pretenses to
righteousness.
ii. In
the same way Lent gives opportunity for us to confess our total inadequacy
before God, and thus come before Him in dust and ashes. It is a way to empty
ourselves of our false pride, of our rationalizations that prevent us from
seeing ourselves as needy creatures.
d. Desert
as purification through repentance.
i. Flowing
out of coming to terms with our deep need for God, the call to repentance also
comes out of the desert place. “It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I
will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way"— "a
voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord.”
ii. Repentance
is about detaching ourselves from those things that are blocking the light of
God into our lives. Repentance, or metanoia,
is an “abrupt turn around” so that we reorient ourselves facing God again and
not our own god substitutes.
e. Desert as a place of
stillness.
i. “I
will lure you and call you into the desert, and there I will speak tenderly to
your heart.” Hosea 2:14.
ii. “Be
still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46
iii. In
the stillness of the desert, Christ draws us back to himself. We always have
the choice of what to fill our emptiness: either God or other things. The
intentional emptiness created by fasting is not an end in itself, but is to be
filled with God by us saying YES to God.
III.
What are we to do during Lent? The triad of Lent: Fasting, prayer, and acts of
compassion.
a. Fasting
i. Fasting
helps us experience hunger like the wandering Israelites and see God provide
manna for us. It helps us seek the One who alone satisfies our needs. Fasting
“is not to force on us a few formal obligations, but to ‘soften’ our heart so
that it may open itself to the realities of the spirit, to experience the
hidden ‘thirst and hunger’ for communion with God.” –Schmemann Great Lent
ii. Fasting
helps us value that which we fast from of their true worth. After fasting, it
is felt a real blessing when we receive the simple blessings back again.
iii. “How
many people have accepted the idea that Lent is the time when something which
may be good in itself is forbidden, as
if God were taking pleasure in torturing us. For the authors of Lenten hymns,
however, Lent is exactly the opposite; it is a return to the “normal” life, to
that “fasting” which Adam and Eve broke, thus introducing suffering and death
into the world. Lent is greeted, therefore, as a spiritual spring, as a time of
joy and light:
The
Lenten spring as come, the light of repentance…Let us receive the announcement
of Lent with joy! For if our forefather Adam had kept the fast, we would not
have been deprived of paradise…the time of Lent is a time of gladness! With
radiant purity and pure love, filled with resplendent prayer and all good
deeds, let us sing with joy…
iv. “Fasting
is the refusal to accept the desires and urges of our fallen nature as normal,
the effort to free ourselves from the dictatorship of the flesh and matter over
the spirit.”
v. Just as we repent with
our spirit, fasting is a way for us to repent with our bodies. Schmemann
writes, “Salvation and repentance then are not contempt for the body or neglect
of it, but restoration of the body to its real function as the expression and
the life of spirit, as the temple of the priceless human soul. Christian
asceticism is a fight, not against but for
the body. For this reason, the whole
man—soul and body—repents. The body participates in the prayer of the soul just
as the soul prays through and in the body. Prostrations [or kneeling] are a
“psycho-somatic” sign of repentance and humility, of adoration and obedience,
and are thus the Lenten rite par excellence."
vi. Collective
fasting is also a beautiful opportunity to express our solidarity and communion
with Christians all over the world. During Lent men, women and children, rich
and poor, together fast in unity in preparation and anticipation of the Coming
of Christ.
·
Since the early Middle Ages, meat, eggs and dairy
products were given up universally throughout the Christendom. Butchers would
close up their shops and the cow’s milk would go to the dogs for those 6 weeks.
Abstaining from eating meat, eggs, and dairy products are still observed throughout
the world in the Orthodox and Catholic worlds. Many churches will fast during
the week and break their fast each Sunday, since every Sunday is traditionally
considered a feast day.
a. The
Western Reasons. Thomas Aquinas argued that
"they [meat and dairy] afford greater pleasure as food [than fish], and
greater nourishment to the human body, so that from their consumption there
results a greater surplus available for seminal matter, which when abundant
becomes a great incentive to lust."
b. The
Eastern Reasons: “From the creation of our
Parents in Paradise to the time after the great flood, people ate only fruits,
grains and vegetables. This is the food of paradise! The practice of abstinence
reminds us of our high calling to manage all creation in the Name of the Lord.
Our hunger for meat and other rich food serves as a reminder of the enmity that
exists in creation as a result of sin. Especially during this holy season when
the liturgy reminds us of the role that the stars, the angels, the earth
itself, the beasts of the field, the ox and the ass all played in receiving the
Savior of the world, abstinence calls us to set aside our enmity even with the
animals in order to restore peace on earth.”[1]
vii. Fasting
also teaches what it truly means to feast. In a society where we can have
anything anytime we want, the experience of waiting or being patient is
something we aren’t very good at. Abstaining for certain foods for a week at a
time—to feel hunger for something and learning discipline teaches us delayed
gratification. After a week of not eating meat or dairy, makes Sunday feel like a true feast day. Our bodies actually itch for
Sundays. Giving up of things in order to value them of their true worth makes
us aware of their real blessing when we receive them back again.
b. Prayer:
i. Fasting
should go with prayer. Fasting without prayer just makes us irritable: the
devils fast. In Lent we are to give more time in prayer and attention to prayer
as we turn in a more conscious way to God.
ii. Taking
time for repentance.
·
The prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian
·
The Litany of Penance
·
The Jesus Prayer. “Jesus Son of God have mercy on me a
sinner.”
c. Almsgiving
i. Giving
of finances and giving practical compassion to others around us. Giving time.
Giving what we are. Visit the lonely. Catching up on letters of encouragement.
“Give bread and receive paradise” - St. John Chrysostom.
ii. Less
distractions from diversions creates space in which we are better able to give
to others more deeply.
Conclusion
·
Lent is not mandatory for the Christian. Yet why not?
Only good can come of it if it is done well. It has been a deeply meaningful
and woven into the fabric of our Christian heritage.
·
Observing Lent gives us an opportunity to grow closer
as a community as we all seek to grow closer to Christ. Collective fasting can
be a great encouragement as we walk together through the desert experience.
·
Being weak, we need external reminders, symbols, and
signs. Lent invites us to enter into a kind of desert experience of
transformation, repentance, purification, and preparation. Lenten fasts are
intended to ‘soften’ us to be more perceptive of God’s work in our lives.
Participating in a collective fast, brings us closer together, and teaches us a
deeper love for feasting. Fasting, coupled with both prayer and acts of
compassion, encourages us to follow in the footsteps of our Savoir in tangible
actions.
·
Given the many layers of meaning in Lent, we won’t
grasp all of them in a single year. But imagine if we were to observe Lent
every year for the rest of our life—imagine how much we would grow and learn.
·
"O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the
spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the
spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to thy service. Yea, O Lord
and King, grant me to see my own transgressions and not to judge my brother.
For blessed art thou unto ages of ages. Amen." –A prayer for Lent of St.
Ephraim the Syrian
