A Fresh Perspective on Lent

A Fresh Perspective on Lent

Ash Wednesday calls each of us to forty days of self-examination and repentance that is the Season of Lent…a time to receive forgiveness and to be spiritually renewed and restored to God.  It is an ancient and widely accepted practice of God’s people, or so I thought.  But, Ash Wednesday is not actually a practice that is shared by all Christians around the world.  Our Eastern Orthodox Church does not celebrate Ash Wednesday and they don’t observe Lent using the same calendar as those of us in the Western church.

So how do they mark Lent as a season to be recognized by the church?  Well, they don’t begin the season with Ash Wednesday but with Clean Monday.  You see the emphasis during Lent in the Eastern church is not on sin and repentance but on a holy preparation for the celebration to greet the Lord…a preparation for the celebration of Easter Sunday.

Early Christians in the first century also emphasized this preparation for the resurrection by fasting for a few days.  In the West when we think of fasting we think of penitence but in the East fasting is considered a cleansing or purification of the body before enjoying the great feast on the Day of Resurrection.  In the West we think of fasting as abstaining from food but in the East it is an effort to eat the freshest raw fruits and vegetables as a way to detoxify one’s system.  Over the years Clean Monday also became a holiday when people would take off work to enjoy their families, especially with outdoor activities like picnics and festivals.  And, in time the highlight of this celebration became families flying kites together to symbolize their joyous spirits being lifted up to heaven.

A couple of years ago my theme for Lent was not repentance but renewal and last year I suggested we give up  Lent for Lent.  So, as you can see my thoughts on Lent have also evolved over time.  This year with all the turmoil, war, and political instability that surrounds us, I think I want a Lent with less, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner” and more of a forty-day preparation for the celebration of Easter.  This year I don’t need to be reminded that I am going to die someday.  I know that!  This year I don’t need a bunch of depressing self-evaluation and repentance. 

So, when I began to read and contemplate the Eastern Orthodox Church’s Clean Monday and their emphasis on cleansing and purity during Lent, it hit home for me.  But, here again, the Eastern and Western concept of purity is different.  In the West purity is the absence of sin, but in the East purity is achieved by a cleansing in order to prepare for meeting our Lord face to face on Easter Sunday and to celebrate being in full union with the love of God.

The Church in the West went the other way over the years.  It was in the third or fourth century that the Western Church moved from an emphasis on purity, preparation, and celebration to an emphasis on forty days of confessing our sin and acknowledging our need to do so before our death.  But, even then the tradition of the Imposition of Ashes was reserved for the most notorious and wicked of sinners.  It was not a mark of devotion but of shame.  It was still several hundred more years before what we now know as Ash Wednesday and Lent became widespread in the Western Church.

If you are feeling like I am this year…overwhelmed by personal and public concerns for the future, then I believe that we need to prepare so that we are ready to receive the fullness of light and love, prepare so that we are ready when the tomb is empty, prepare so that we are ready to greet Jesus as our resurrected and living Lord. 

Right now death is everywhere.  We don’t need ashes on our foreheads to remind us of it, all we need to do is turn on the news.  Yet, we must not let that take over our lives to the point that we can’t see the light of Easter.

The Western Church is far too invested in talking about our personal sins…far too invested in having us wallow in regret for the next forty days.  Let’s not wallow!  Even if ashes have always been important to you on Ash Wednesday, let’s go outside, eat the freshest of foods, and fly a kite during Lent this year.  Let’s take a break from admitting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness.  Let us wrap ourselves in mercy and open ourselves in greater love because we all know we are going to die, but we can surely do a better job of living in the light and beauty of God while we are here on this earth.

That’s Lent for me this year.  If that’s Lent for you, then let’s go fly a kite!

(For this article I am indebted to the writings of Church Historian,

Diana Butler Bass.)