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The season of Lent lasts 40 days, not counting the Sundays. It rained on Noah in the ark for 40 days and nights. God purged Israel of its unbelieving elders by making them wander in the wilderness for 40 years. When Our Lord went out into the wilderness to overcome the temptations of the devil, He prepared Himself by fasting for 40 days.
Every year we use the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday to celebrate God's repeated victories in driving back sin, death, and the power of the devil. Lent is not a time for us to seek out and do battle with the devil. It is not a time for us to challenge our Old Adam to single combat. It is not a time to rid the world of evil. Lent is not a time for reinventing the wheel or for duplicating Christ's efforts.
Lent is a time for celebrating (with contrite and penitent heart to be sure) what Jesus has already accomplished for us by His perfect life and selfless death on the cross. but how can any season in which we are discouraged from even saying Alleluia (Hallelujah) be considered a celebration? The tears of Lent are not the salt tears of the recent widow. They are the joyful tears of the new mother or the new father. Anyone who has ever wept for joy or in relief, or for the lack of anything even like the right words, can understand Lent.
Lent is rich and complex and very beautiful, even in its somber and quiet dampening-down way. It is a reflective and penitential season, and yet, it is also a season for this reserved rejoicing. Lent is a season of whispered worship and profound prayer. Lent is not for moping or being miserable. It is for rejoicing in the victory of our God/Man over all our foes.
Deo Vindice,
Father Watson SSP
