The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
March 1, 2009
Vol. 12 no. 09

Everything But...
           Today is not Lent, just a Sunday in Lent. Four days down out of forty, but all the odd traditions of the Church seem to clump together in this period between Easter and Christmas. Most traditions are derived not from the Biblical story, but from how people worship.
          Lent was not an automatic season and the early Christians did not practice it. It had to be invented or devised to prepare the faithful for Easter. It didn’t take long to recognize that even Christians take some things for granted - the Resurrection, for example - as an entitlement requiring nothing on their own part. So a period of penance and discipline was mandated prior to Easter, the best Biblical precedent being Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness combating inner and outer temptations.
          Jesus did not eat for those forty days, so fasting, doing without eating for specific periods of time, became a fixture in Lenten practices across the denominational board. Since Jesus did not have any creature comforts in the barren wilderness, most have mimicked his austerity by “giving up something for Lent.”
          However, Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness is far removed chronologically from the events of Holy Week and Easter; therefore, the institution of Lent fits the need for repentance before triumph and reward. More worship stuff - Sunday as the day of Resurrection - is always a feast day, a celebration of joy, very un-Lent. So Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday adds up to 46 days, tacking the six Sundays on to 40. The Wednesday ashes are from the burnt remains of last year’s Palm Sunday palms. Palm Sunday is not Lent either, but let’s not be technical; let’s do the Word.