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Mailing Address: PO Box 575
860.658.7627
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February 25, 2022Lent, our annual pilgrimage of 40 days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in preparation for the celebration of Our Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection, begins this week.
But we may have questions about how Lent came about as a season of repentance. So this week I’d like to share a little about the origins and meaning of Lent historically.
How did Lent begin?
As the Church began to grow and accept new members through baptism, there arose a preparation for that process of learning about the Lord and this new Church that was called the “catechumenate.” This was an opportunity for full members of the Christian community to mentor those who were seeking to become Christian. When those preparing for baptism and membership in the Church were ready, there was a period of proximate preparation for baptism, which was generally administered each year at Easter. This period came to be known as a period of purification and enlightenment.
Catechumens, called or “elected” by the local bishop to be baptized at the upcoming Easter celebration, (now called “the Elect”) were to prepare in earnest for baptism through fasting and prayer, modeled after the Lord’s own 40-day time of fasting and prayer in preparation for his public ministry – a practice which continues to this day for adults entering the Church through baptism. Gradually members of the Church who were already baptized, joined in solidarity with the Elect in their preparation for baptism by doing some of the same things.
The penitential nature of Lent ties in with another practice of the early Church known as the Order of Penitents. At baptism we are freed from all sin. But the question naturally arose in the early Church of what to do for those who sinned after baptism.
Were they excommunicated, never to return to the Church? Or could there be a way to reconcile them with the Church? The Order of Penitents was born. Those who sinned gravely and publicly were to appear before the bishop dressed in sackcloth – the biblical garb of mourners -- to be admonished, have ashes imposed on their heads, and sent forth from the church to do public acts of penance for the next 40 days. They were instructed not to return to the Church community until the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, at which time the bishop would restore them to full unity with the Church community and welcome them back to the Eucharistic table.
With these two precedents we can see where many of the traditions of Lent originate: the 40 days, the imposition of ashes, the penitential nature of the season, the call for prayer and fasting in preparation for Easter.
We always speak of “40 Days” of Lent? Yet when I count them there seem to be more. Why?
Once again, this has to do with the historical development of Lent, which originally began on a Sunday, and continued for 40 days to Holy Thursday when Lent ends in the afternoon. The Easter Triduum (the Three Days) begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening and continues through Sunday. But that’s four days you say? Not really. Because for our Jewish ancestors as for the early Christians, the day was always counted from sundown to sundown. Sundown Thursday to sundown Friday is one, Friday sundown to Saturday is two, and Saturday sundown (after which we can begin the great Easter Vigil) to Sunday is three days. Ash Wednesday only comes in later to commence the Order of Penitents, when those needing reconciliation had ashes imposed before Lent began. Ash Wednesday to the First Sunday of Lent became known as the “porch of Lent.”
