A Meditation on this Season of Lent

As of Wednesday we began the season of Lent, the season which heralds Christ's passion and resurrection. And so with him we wander forty days in the desert, praying and fasting, as Israel wandered fort years in the desert awaiting the promised land, and Noah and his family watched the rain come down, obliterating and renewing the Earth for its unveiling as a new creation.

Many people, in this modern age, choose, for the season of Lent, to take up an act of charity (caritas) as opposed to giving something up as a fast. While I applaud those people for their positive piety, I fear we begin to forget the ancient journey that is Lent. For many years we have dwelt upon the desert, and now we choose to dwell on the living water which flows from the rock. But we mustn't forget that we are still in the desert. Christ spent forty days in the desert, both fasting and praying. He did not fast, dwelling only upon the solemn and hardship, as so many among us have been wont to do. Nor did he pray, dwelling only upon the divine and heaven, as so many among us are encouraged to do. Instead did both, praying and fasting, meditating solemnly in hardship upon his Father's heavenly will. Thus experiencing his humanity while being led by his divine nature.

It was not until the forty days had finished that the true temptation began. After the forty days, when he was physically exhausted from his fast, distinctly human, aware of the world through his hunger and thirst, sustained by spiritual bread and wine, he then faced a spiritual desolation. And so it is with us that after we have fasted for forty days, filling our hearts instead with prayer and charity, that we must face the desolation of watching our Lord and Saviour die. And in his dying and by his rising, withstanding the devil's temptation, he imparts to us his Body and Blood which imparts to us his divine nature by consummation of holy union.

This is the journey that is Lent; and this, that is the taking his freely given Body and Blood into ourselves, is the consummation which we celebrate every Sunday, and even every day we attend church. Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday teaches us day by day what it means to be Christian.