I love paradox. For me, it brings enigmatic energy back into the mystery of faith. Paradox allows us to forcefully juxtapose the various theological constructs of our faith and can help us to break out of our superficial and ego-driven understandings of them. Lent is paradox in abundance.
When the church practice of Lent slowly evolved (in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries C.E.) it was based on a conflation which oddly superimposed the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (the desert story) onto the end story of the passion – an alpha and omega – the approximately 3 years of intervening public ministry squashed into a single oneness of time – like birth and death dates on a tombstone.
Frances of Assisi supposedly observed five 40-day “lents” per year, including the official or “Great Lent”. That is 200 days out of 365 – almost approaching a near continuous Lent!
Then there is the symbolic number 40 – the number of days in Noah’s flood, the number of years Moses wandered, the length of days in Elijah’s fast, the length in days of Jonah’s warning to Nineveh…a symbolic number used over 150 different times in the Bible – the length of time required for profound change. Not an absolute or actual length of time. The units change, thereby making it a relative length of time whose units always sum up to 40.
The paradox of Lent continued in church history. John Calvin held that the observance of Lent was false zeal, replete with superstition, which set up a fast under the title and pretext of imitating Christ.
Today, various Christian faith traditions have widely different attitudes and take various approaches to Lent. For some Lent is the liturgical focus of their year. For others, it is merely a footnote. Some Christians focus historically, reflecting on Jesus’ passion. Some focus existentially on self mortification and personal renewal.
For me, I’ve observed Lent differently at different times of my life. “One life, different observances” – yet another Lenten paradox. Currently for me, my enigmatic Lenten focus is on the meaning of 40 – the count of some unspecified units of time that it takes for a change. When you are over 70 years old, the conflation of preparation for ministry and the run up to death makes both actuarial sense and also experiential reality – time collapses the recent beginning, current middle, and imminent end into a spiritual now.
I pray that your Lenten experience this year offers you the gift of a breakthrough or a comfort – whatever it is that you need at his time in your life and your surroundings.
Peace and blessings – Neal (on behalf of the Servant Council: Juniper, Shoshanah, Markie, Kelly, Neal)