After the risk of an ‘Abstract Lent’ and the deception of a ‘Formal
Lent’, there is third, even more dangerous risk, an ‘Orphan Lent’.
What do I mean?
Lent does not exist by itself, it does not have meaning on its own.
Lent has a ‘father’, and the father of Lent is the Passover.
Lent has a ‘mother’, and the mother of Lent is Easter Sunday.
If we want to understand the meaning of Lent and keep its spirit we
cannot start off from Ash Wednesday, from fasting and penance. No!
The only place we can start is Easter.
Easter, the Passover the Lord, is not simply a date among many
others at the top of the list of holy days. No, Easter is the ‘Feast
of feasts’, it is the one feast which ‘gives birth’ and gives
meaning to all the others.
At the centre of our Christian life is the Easter Triduum. These
‘Three Days’ (Triduum in Latin) cannot be split; they are one single
liturgy, making up one movement, a ‘passing-over’, the Passover of
the Lord, the death and resurrection of Christ and of every
Christian. What precedes them are the Forty Days of Lent, what
follows are the Fifty Days of Easter leading to Pentecost.
When we add up Forty Days (40) of Lent, Three Days (3) of Passover,
and Fifty Days (50) of Easter, what do we get?
Very simple, we get Christianity!
We cannot split the desert from the Promised Land, we need to keep
united the call to conversion with the promise of the Holy Spirit.
It is Lent.
Not an ‘Abstract Lent’, dissociated from our reality.
Not a ‘Formal Lent’, emptied of its deep meaning.
Not an ‘Orphan Lent’, separated from its origin and destination.
One journey, one pass-over, one people.
