Shame and Shamelessnes: The Spousal Meaning of the Body as an Antidote to Lust
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