An Introduction to Lent

“The solemn season has come round when I must remind your graces about giving more attentive thought to your souls, and chastising your bodies. These, you see, are the forty days held so sacred in all countries of the earth, that the whole world, which God reconciles to himself in Christ, celebrates them with remarkable devotion as Easter approaches.” (Augustine, Sermon 209.1)

Each year, Saint Augustine gave a sermon to his congregation in Hippo on the occasion of the beginning of Lent. The passage above, which begins one such sermon, dates to the early decades of the 5^th century.  By then, Augustine could claim that Lent was celebrated “in all countries of the earth.” Through “the whole world,” Christians were setting aside the forty days before Easter with a heightened discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

The Biblical Significance of Forty

In the Bible, forty is an important number, often associated with a period of judgment or testing. Noah’s flood came when God sent rain for “forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:4). Moses reminds the Israelites that that “the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8:2).

Moreover, the Bible records multiple forty-day periods associated with fasting. Moses fasted on Mt Sinai at the giving of God’s law. “He was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Exodus 34:28). Elijah fasted in his own mountain journey, “forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God (1 Kings 19:8).

Given the significance of the number forty to the history of Israel, it is fitting that Jesus himself was “led by the Spirit in the wilderness, for forty days, being tempted by the devil.” (Luke 4:1-2). In other words, Jesus was reliving the story of Israel, returning to the wilderness to be tested. Where Israel failed, Jesus would succeed, even though “he ate nothing during those days.” (Luke 4:2).

Looking back on these Biblical forties, we see acutely our own sinfulness, our own identification with Israel’s failure in the wilderness. This heightens our gratitude for our Lord’s triumph over Satan and sin, which point forward to his triumph over death.

Lenten Disciplines in the New Testament

The New Testament does not reference the season of Lent. But it does reference the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Jesus taught on all three practices in the Sermon on the Mount. There, Jesus offered specific instructions on how to give, how to pray, and how to fast. The gist is to carry out these practices in the sight of God, rather than the sight of men. Do not give in order to be “praised by others” (Matthew 6:2). Do not pray in order to be “seen by others” (Matthew 6:5). Do not fast in order to be “seen by others” (Matthew 6:16).

Critics of Lenten practices sometimes mention Jesus’ words here, but Jesus offered these words of correction in the service of proper use. That’s why he said, “when you give,” and “when you pray,” and “when you fast” (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16).

Therefore it is not surprising that we see these practices in the New Testament church. Some are present in the Church of Jerusalem, and we see all three spiritual disciplines in the Church of Antioch. Antioch was one of the first gentile churches and the first in which believers were called Christians.

In Acts 11, Paul encouraged the church at Antioch to practice almsgiving, sending needed funds to the church in Jerusalem. Paul took these funds to Jerusalem at the end of Acts 11. And when he returned to Antioch at the end of Acts 12, he led the church in prayer and fasting, which resulted in Paul’s first missionary journey. While the church of Antioch did not have a forty-day season of Lent, it did practice the spiritual disciplines of the season.

The Emergence of Lent in the Early Church

How, then, did the church go from Antioch to Augustine? How did this early practice of the spiritual disciplines turn into a forty-day season before Easter? We don’t have a precise answer, though Augustine’s witness to international unity argues for an early date. The practice began no later than 325, since a disciplinary canon from Nicaea makes glancing reference to the forty days. And it seems the practice probably coalesced no earlier than the late second-century, since Irenaeus references varieties of pre-Easter fasting practices, but does not mention the option of forty days.

One common theory is that Lent emerged as an expanded season of fasting before Easter baptisms. Here the Biblical basis is Paul, who “neither ate nor drank” for three days between his experience on the Road to Damascus and his baptism by Ananias (Acts 9:9). And early church liturgical manuals, such as the Didache, often teach a catechumen to fast before his baptism. It’s especially interesting that the Didache prescribes fasting not only to the one being baptized, but also to the baptizer and others: “before the baptism let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whatever others can” (Didache, 7). On this theory, the fasting that began as a practice for the catechumen expanded to include the whole church.

Attention to the Soul

Whether or not this is the way Lent emerged, it is certainly the way Lent came to be practiced: a forty day season of spiritual discipline for the whole church. As Augustine preached, it is a season in which we give “more attentive thought to our souls.” However, Augustine’s annual exhortation makes it clear that the practice was never adopted by every Christian family and individual. If that were so, there would be no need for exhortation! Nor have the various churches ever been united in the details. The churches calculate the forty days differently, and they differ in the practical application of the spiritual disciplines.

In other words, the details of Lent do not have the universal character of moral law, but rather the local character of custom in the formation of the spiritual life. From a reformed perspective, this is another way of saying that Lent is not properly understood as a commandment of God. We should acknowledge and receive it as a tradition of men. Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving are indeed commanded of God generally, for which reason they are worthwhile and beneficial to the soul, at any time of year. What Lent does is to bring a special focus to these practices, just as gathering on Sundays brings a special focus to spiritual disciplines that we properly practice every day.

A Sampling of Lenten Customs

What are some of these Lenten customs?

ASH WEDNESDAY

The Western Church often includes the imposition of ashes of the first day of Lent, commonly called Ash Wednesday. This ritual is paired with words from God’s judgment of Adam: “you are dust, and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19). The practice points to our sinful condition and its mortal consequence, powerfully reminding us that we need a savior.

This practice is not followed in the Eastern Church, which counts the 40 days of Lent differently and begins on a Monday. Many reformed churches also dropped the practice in the 16^th century. In the Book of Common Prayer, for example, Thomas Cranmer retained a service for Ash Wednesday but dropped the imposition of ashes, prescribing instead a reading of Matthew 6, in which Jesus taught: “when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:17-18).

Today, many reformed churches have reinstituted Ash Wednesday. To my mind, Jesus’ teaching excludes not the imposition of ashes, but rather the flaunting of them. Therefore churches that do practice Ash Wednesday should be careful to instruct their parishioners to remove the ashes before going in public. In my congregation, we include a ceremonial washing at the end of the service, in which the ashes are removed and the gospel proclaimed, that we are “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).

FASTING FROM MEAT AND OTHER GOODS

There are many ways to fast, but one of the most common is to give up meat, either on Good Friday alone, every Friday in Lent, or through the whole of the forty days. We can also fast from other goods, such as rich foods or desserts, or even whole meals. This kind of fasting is often paired with almsgiving, by giving away the money that would have been spent.

The point here is not that eating meat is bad. Rather, it is good to eat meat, which is provided by God to give us nutrition and strength. But a temporary abstinence from a good gift is a powerful reminder of the goodness of that gift. A little absence makes the heart grow fonder. Moreover, fasting from something good reminds us of our ultimate reliance on God, the giver of all good gifts. Better than any gift is the giver himself, so when we fast we turn to God to supply our felt need. Put simply, fasting heightens our prayer.

Sometimes Christians will use Lent as an occasion to remove some vice or sinful habit from their lives. This can be a good practice, provided the holy discipline continues after Easter. In other words, we should fast from a good practice seasonally, and remove a bad practice permanently.

THE PENITENTIAL PSALMS

Lent features a special focus on the penitential psalms, a group of psalms which acknowledge, lament, and repent of our sin. Traditionally there are seven penitential psalms, as first classified by Cassiodorus: 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.

Perhaps the most famous of these is psalm 51, attributed to David after he was convicted of his sin by the prophet Nathan. The opening verses read: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” (Psalm 51:1-2).

During Lent we read and reflect on these psalms, and they assist us in our practice of repentance. It is also wonderful to chant and sing these psalms and related hymns, available in musical settings of many styles. “God be merciful to me,” for example, is a metrical setting of Psalm 51 with both classic and contemporary tunes.

LENTEN DEVOTIONS & STATIONS OF THE CROSS

During the heightened prayerfulness of the Lenten season, Christians make special use of a variety of devotions and forms of prayer. One common practice is the Lenten devotional, which offers readings and reflections for each of the forty days in the season. Devotionals are available in many genres, from theology to poetry to family prayer, and many congregations and ministries will also create their own. In a previous CREDO article, Luke Stamps also shares a number of Lenten reading recommendations on the work of Christ.

Another common pattern of prayer is the Stations of the Cross, in its traditional or Biblical forms. This devotion has an ancient pedigree, with selected elements going back to the early centuries of the church in Jerusalem. The stations imaginatively follow Jesus’ journey from Gethsemane to the tomb, elongating the story of Christ’s passion to facilitate deeper reflection and love.

An Invitation to a Holy Lent

In my tradition, the clergy continue the exhortatory efforts we saw in Saint Augustine. On Ash Wednesday, they stand before their congregations, and invite the people to observe a holy Lent:

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful, were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. In this manner, the whole Congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need that all Christians continually have to renew our repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent: by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and alms-giving; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And to make a right beginning, let us now pray for grace, that we may faithfully keep this Lent. (Book of Common Prayer 2019, 543-544).

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Image Credit: Temptations of Christ San Marcos (Public Domain)