The Long Lent

Learning to see life as a long Lent

02/17/2021

Joel 2:12-18 Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment. Perhaps he will again relent and leave behind him a blessing, Offerings and libations for the LORD, your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion! proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the people, notify the congregation; Assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom quit his room and the bride her chamber. Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep, And say, “Spare, O LORD, your people, and make not your heritage a reproach, with the nations ruling over them! Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land and took pity on his people.

The season of Lent usually runs from Ash Wednesday till Holy Thursday, minus the Sundays. But this year Lent started early with a massive snow storm that has shut down a large swath of the United States. Here at home in Fort Smith, people have lost electricity, their pipes have frozen, or worse, their pipes burst and flooded their home, and temperatures have dipped to record lows at 7 degrees below zero. But I would suggest to you that this Lent started long before this snow storm.

This Lent feels like a continuation of the Lent of last year – the yucky year 2020 – because we are still crippled by the coronavirus pandemic. Our churches still practice the precautions of wearing masks and sitting in every other pew for social distancing. Even the way we receive ashes today will be different, that is, the priest or minister will sprinkle the ashes on top of your head instead of make the customary cross of ashes on your forehead. Some Catholics will be disappointed not being able to show off their ashes to their Protestant friends. All the “cool kids” get ashes on Ash Wednesday.

Nevertheless, maybe this long Lent is helping us to see a little better what Lent is really all about. What do I mean? Lent is a season of sacrifice where we deliberately choose a cross to carry for forty days. For instance, we stop staring at social media, or we forego coffee or alcohol, or we may elect to eat no more desserts, etc. But authentic Christians do not carry our crosses just for forty days, but rather for our whole life. Jesus said in Mt. 16:24, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Jesus did not mean you carry your cross for forty days and then you can drop it and relax for the other 325 days of the year. This long Lent relentlessly reminds us that the cross should be a constant in a Christian’s life.

Secondly, this long Lent can teach us that the earthly Easter is not the end of the road of Lent. Of course, we look forward to Easter this year with great anticipation when we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection with joy. We will hide Easter eggs, and girls will don Easter dresses, and hopefully more can make it to Mass. But this Lent will not end at Easter. Why not? Well, this pandemic will likely continue for a while longer, stretching into summer. And I think of those who have lost a loved one to the COVID virus, for whom this Lent has left an indelible wound. That, however, may not be all bad. Why not?

All our losses during Lent underscore what we hear in Heb. 13:14, the last chapter of the stupendous sermon, where the anonymous ancient author says: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.” He is referring to the “heavenly Jerusalem” described in Rev. 21:2, where St. John said: “I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” In other words, every Lent, especially this one, teaches us to long for our heavenly home, the last city of Jerusalem, which (changing metaphors) is the Bride of the Lamb. And the “bride” is a beautiful image of this Lent because every bride fasts and makes many sacrifices to fit into her wedding dress.

My friends, welcome to Lent, 2021. Strangely enough, this Lent started before Ash Wednesday and it promises to persist long after Easter Sunday. But that may be a blessing in disguise. How so? It gently reminds us every Christian must carry his or her cross daily. And the eternal Easter awaits us in heaven not here on earth. Maybe this long Lent will not feel so long if we look at it like a bride who longs for her wedding day.

Praised be Jesus Christ!