LiteKeeper:
While I understand from your evangelical perspective, you do not celebrate Lent, its practice is actually part of Apostolic Tradition. Again, while you may not embrace it, I hope after my post you will at least understand the Catholic, as well as Orthodox perspective on Lent [and also some of the Liturgical Reformed Protestant Traditions who have retained or rediscovered the practice]. Also, I would like to think my post below was done so in a non-polemical fashion.
Lent does mean “spring” coming from Old English, it is derived from the Latin Word “quadragesima” or forty days. Catholic Churches use a Liturgical calendar whereby the entire cycle of the year points to Christ. Hence, the Church’s new year begins in Advent, which is a season of preparation for both the birth of Christ (i.e. the Incarnation) and also a preparation for his second coming. Christmas follows advent and is a season of 12 days where the Church focuses on the birth of Christ and important feasts of the early life of Christ (Holy Family, Epiphany) and also added here is the Baptism of the Lord, which is the 3rd Sunday following Christmas day.
There is a period of “Ordinary Time” between Christmas and Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday and leads up to the celebration of the paschal mystery (i.e. Easter Triduum, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Pasch/Easter Sunday). So a Non-Catholic may ask questions such as What is Lent?, what is the purpose of Lent? and what is its historical origins. Again, the Catholic Church celebrates the entire “Life of Christ” in its Liturgy (Public Official worship of the Catholic Church). Lent is a 40-day Liturgical season of fasting, almsgiving and special prayer, which the Church sees in scripture in numerous places (e.g. Tobit 12:8, Mt 6:1-18). The purpose of Lent is to embrace and celebrate the public mysteries of Jesus’ Life (i.e. his Baptism, which was mentioned earlier) and now his temptations. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 540) states:
Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning (c.f. Hebrews 4:15).” By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.
The reason for 40 days in Lent is based on the Catholic Church’s principle of Typology, which is the key principle of Catholic Biblical Interpretation. Typology reads the Bible as a unified whole with Christ as the Center, thus Catholic discern in the Old Testament persons, events, signs, etc as prefigurements of Christ and events in the New Testament. From this perspective, King David prefigures Christ the eternal King of the new covenant, etc. In a similar fashion, in the OT we see 40 days as a biblical number relating to discipline, devotion, and preparation. For example, Moses stayed on the Mountain of God for forty days (c.f. Ex 24:18; 34:28); the scouts reconnoitered the land for 40 days (Numbers 13:25); Elijah traveled 40 days before he reached the cave where he has a an encounter with the Lord (1 Kings 19: 8-9); the city of Nineveh was given 40 days to repent (Jonah 3:4). As we move to the NT, and this is especially important for Catholics and fulfills the OT passages cited (i.e. the 40 days of preparation), we see Christ pray and fast for forty days before he begins his public ministry (c.f. Mt 4:2) and of course his public ministry will ultimately lead to the Cross.
We begin Lent with the marking of ashes, which in the Scriptures, is a biblical symbol of penance, which Lent is focused on. Along, with penance, we fast and give alms, as was alluded to earlier. Ashes, as a sign of repentance are evidenced in several OT passages (c.f. 1 Sam 4:12; 2 Sam 1:10) and also symbolize death and remind us of our mortality and God’s words expressed in the OT (c.f. Gen 3:19; Job 34:15; Psalm 90:3; 104:29). The Catholic Liturgy on Ash Wednesday echoes God’s words as the Priest says “Remember man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shall return”. Catholic funeral Liturgies/Masses also echo this theme by saying “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
As early as the 2nd century, we see evidence of some type of Lenten preparation for Easter. For example, St. Irenaeus (140-202 AD) wrote a letter to the Bishop of Rome (Pope St. Victor) [these are the so called Fragments, which have survived based on being cited in later works among the Fathers] regarding the dispute over the date to celebrate Easter. Also in this letter was a reference to how long the fast should be kept before Easter. Eusebius (263 to 340 AD) in his History of the Church, Vol. 24 quotes St. Irenaeus and writes: “The dispute is not only about the day [i.e. Easter], but also about the actual character of the fast. Some think that they ought to fast one day, some for two, others still more; some make their ‘day’ last 40 hours on end. Such variation of observance did not originate in our own day, but very much earlier, in the time of our forefathers.”
Thus, the importance of this quote by Eusebius of St. Irenaeus illustrates that both Easter and some type of Lenten preparation where being celebrated in the 2nd century Church and has its roots back to the time of the Apostles. At the time of the Council of Nicea (325 AD), the method for calculating the date of Pascha/Easter was determined as well as the notion of a standard “40 day Lent preparation for Easter” as Canon 5 of the Council of Nicea states “two provincial synods should be held each year, one before the 40 days of Lent.” The standard 40 day Lent becomes the universal practice of the orthodox Catholic Tradition in the later 4th and early 5th centuries as evidenced in the writings of St. Athanansius, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria and Pope Leo the Great.
In closing, the notion of a Lenten preparation for Easter goes back to the early Church and the Liturgical practice of it predates the final formation of the NT Biblical canon, which does not occur until the end of the 4th century. In addition, the practice itself is fully supported by the sacred scriptures and actually brings to life the scriptures in the Liturgy of the Church. So, from the Catholic perspective, and I think the Orthodox Church would agree, Lent is a fully Apostolic Tradition supported by both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition and affirmed by the Council of Nicea in 325 AD.
Blessed Ash Wednesday to you.
CTrent1564: Beautiful post, full of information, lovingly put. As an evangelical Presbyterian-becoming-Anglican, I’m really appreciating the Church calender now. My understanding of the relationship of sacred Tradition to scripture, is that of the great Anglican Reformer, Richard Hooker, who taught a kind of priority of authority (not a “3-legged stool” as many have misquoted) of Scripture, Reason, and Tradition....with the holy Bible alone being infallible, and the 1st authority, but, Tradition given high authority (much higher than typical evangelicals)—inasmuch it supports and backs up scripture.
The tradition of Lent is certainly one of those practices and interpretations of the Church which backs up and supports God’s holy Word—particularly in the life and example of our Lord Jesus.
About Lent being somehow “derived from the Mystery Religions of Babylon”:
Below this post find another posting, from an evangelical Presbyterian minister, relating to the celebration of THE most controversial day—to some evangelicals—connected to the Church calender (though that day really is NOT in the Calender), that gives a small history with terrific perspective about such things....