More about the season of Lent

 When the Church became too accommodated to its surrounding culture, about the Fourth Century, someone suggested it was time to call Christians back to their senses. The Bible offered examples. Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness putting off its Egyptian ways and learning to trust the Lord. The prophet Elijah retreated for 40 days before hearing the still, small voice of God on the same mountain where centuries earlier Moses had spent 40 days receiving God’s Law. At the outset of his ministry, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness fighting temptations to misuse his authority. During the 40 days of Lent, Christians struggle with the same temptations: How will we live our lives in a hurting world?

The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lengthen and refers to spring’s lengthening daylight. Out of the darkness of life’s winter experiences emerges a springtime people reborn through baptism into the Lord’s death and resurrection, and shaped by our trust in God and our life in a community of forgiveness and hope.

 Ours is a personal God whose ways are marked by self-giving. Lent, therefore, is a season of giving — giving up destructive behavior, giving more generously of ourselves, and giving over our lives to God, as God gave himself for the world.