Answered by Fr. Daniel Torson, CPPS, Lewis University Chaplin
Q: When does Lent take place?
A: Lent is the season prior to Easter. It lasts six and a half weeks. Since the date of Easter moves throughout the spring months of March and April, Lent also moves. Easter, in the Christian West is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring equinox. Lent is a time of preparation to the full celebration of the saving mysteries of Jesus Christ: his passion, death, and resurrection.
Q: Who celebrates Lent?
A: All Eastern Christians (Orthodox), all Roman Catholics, and some Protestant denominations celebrate Lent.
Q: What does Lent observe Biblically?
A: Lent is a time to return to God with all your heart in which prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are emphasized. The Biblical reading for Ash Wednesday from the prophet, Joel, relates the primary disposition of Lent. Joel states: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning” (Joel 2:12). It is because of our sins that we have turned away from God. So during Lent, there is a conscious objective to identify the sins and sinfulness of our lives, seek God’s mercy and forgiveness, and change our lives.
The Gospel for Ash Wednesday from Matthew specifies the primary attitudes of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that have become the external signs lived in conjunction with seeking God’s forgiveness (Matthew 6:1-18).
Q: What should one do since it is Lent?
A: The Catholic Church calls its members to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are also fasting days in which a person is called to refrain from eating any snacks between meals. But these are just minimum standards. More importantly is the call to more intensely turn toward Jesus Christ. We do this by determining what our own individual lives need in order to attain this goal. Thus, the responsibility is upon the individual as each person looks at his or her life. For certain, there is a greater call to prayer (both private and communal) and reading the Bible. Perhaps the primary question for Lent is: How can I be more loving to God, others, and self during this season?
Q: Did Jesus celebrate Lent?
A: No, Jesus did not celebrate Lent as the mysteries of his passion, death and resurrection were not yet revealed. Jesus responds to the question of his own disciples not fasting by saying, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days” (Luke 5:34-35). The reference to the “bridegroom” in these verses is a reference to Jesus, himself.
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