The History and purpose of Lent

Are you a numbers person? Do you love doing Algebra and Calculus

equations on the side? Not me. I am not a big math fan, but I grew up in a

family of engineers, and work for a steel company. Go figure. But the ancient

Hebrews? Well, they liked their numbers. In fact, every number in Hebrew

has a special significance. Like what? Well, lets look.

            The number 6, in Hebrew, is the number of man; for man was created on

the sixth day. It also refers to imperfection; one thinks of 666 in the book of

Revelation. Whereas the number 7 represents completion, or spiritual

perfection. There are 7 days in a sabbath cycle. One thinks of the 7

sacraments, and to “seven oneself” in Hebrew is to swear a covenant. The

number 8 symbolizes a new beginning. Hebrew children were circumcised on

the 8th day. In the NT, Jesus was raised from the dead on the 8th day, and so a

new sabbath day began.

            All good stuff, but the number we want to focus on is 40! In the Bible,

40 is the number of trial or probation. Israel spent 40 years being tested and

tried in the wilderness. Moses stayed on Mt. Sinai 40 days and nights, without

eating any food or drinking any water (Ex. 34:28).  Jesus spent 40 days in the

desert being tested by the devil. There were 40 days from the time of Jesus’

resurrection until His ascension. Biblically, the primary purpose of a 40-day or

40-year testing is to learn to drive away the evil one, or to overcome

temptation. It is to overcome the flesh and subject it to the rule of the Spirit.

How fascinating that the Catholic church in the West chose exactly 40 days

(not counting Sundays) to celebrate Lent!!  

So how did Lent come about? Why practice these 40 days of

abstinence, fast, and almsgiving? The word “Lent” is derived from the Anglo-

Saxon word lencten, meaning “Spring”. Since the earliest times of the church,

there is evidence of some kind of preparation for Easter. For example, St.

Irenaeus, who died in 203 AD, wrote to Pope St. Victor I, asking for advice on

the different practices of Lent in the East versus the West. What is NOT in

dispute in the letter, however, is that these disputes come from “the time of

our forefathers”, which is code that the 40-day practice of Lenten preparation

goes back to the Apostles themselves. Later on, the Council of Nicea in 325

mentions the 40 days of Lent, and Pope St. Leo the Great, who died in 461 AD,

notes the apostolic origins of the 40 days of Lent.

            These practices varied by region, but eventually there came a common

practice of abstaining from meat, allowing exceptions for fish. Rules about

abstaining from dairy products led to the current practices of blessing Easter

eggs and eating pancakes on Fat or Shrove Tuesday.

            So why such an odd practice of using Ashes on Ash Wednesday? Ashes

were a sign of repentance in the OT, as one can see with Job in Job 42:6,

repenting in sackcloth and ashes, and Daniel in Daniel 9:3, turning to God

with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. Ashes are a public sign of our intent to

die to our worldly desires and live in Christ (Catholiclink online post). The

ashes come from burning the blessed palms from Palm Sunday the year

before.

            So why celebrate Lent? The Catechism of the Catholic church gives us

insight. We know that Christ spent 40 days in the desert, being tempted, and

fulfilled what Israel failed at in the desert. He was the “obedient son”, unlike

Israel. In CCC 540, the church teaches, “By the solemn 40 days of Lent the

church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert”. So in

some way, mystically, when we sacrifice and fast during Lent, we accompany

Jesus in His 40-day fast. We are in solidarity with and accompany Him, across

time.

            The church speaks of the harmony of the OT and NT texts, and in

CCC1095, she says, “For this reason, especially during Advent and Lent, and

above all at the Easter Saturday Vigil, the church re-reads and re-lives the

great events of salvation history in the ‘today’ of her Liturgy”. We don’t just go

to Mass and Vespers, etc. in the present moment. In the Hebrew sense of

“remembrance”, we are actually, if spiritually, taken back to those events, to

Christ’s passion, fasting and suffering for our salvation. We “assist Him”, as

Paul says in Colossians 1:24, in the sufferings of our own flesh.

            So these 40 days are intense times of personal spiritual conversion, if

we allow it. An emphasis must be placed on spiritual works, like the Stations

of the Cross, attending Mass more frequently, making a weekly Holy Hour

before the Blessed Sacrament, taking time for personal prayer and spiritual

reading, and making a heartfelt confession of personal sins. The Catechism

teaches us, “The seasons and days of penance in the course of the Liturgical

year (meaning Lent and each Friday in memory of Christ’s death) are intense

moments of the church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly

appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs

of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal

sharing (charitable and missionary works)” (CCC 1438).

            So we see that the church, in “breathing with both lungs”, East and

West, to quote St. John Paul II, has developed various practices, according

to the various cultures, of how to celebrate Lent. What we are certain of, is

the practice of 40 days of fast, etc. goes back to the Apostles themselves.

Despite the various customs, the focus remains the same: to repent of sin,

to renew our faith and to prepare to celebrate joyfully the mysteries of our

salvation.

Glenn M Lanham MATS ’23 (Master of Arts in Theological Studies),

Franciscan University of Steubenville