Every good Catholic knows next week is Ash Wednesday or the
beginning of Lent (also known as Quadragesima in Latin). The Lenten season marks a forty day period of
prayer, penance, repentance, and self-sacrifice in preparation for the
celebration of Easter. For those of us observing Lent, it is a bummer six week
trial where we volunteer to give up something of value to prove we still have
some semblance of spiritual will power. There are days of abstinence from
certain foods, designated times of fasting, and the ritual of the Stations of
the Cross (think of it as a grisly repetitive procession reenacting the
terminal stages of someone’s horrific death).
For Lenten cheaters, one declares one is going to forego a
habit, behavior, or tangible luxuries that look good on paper but in reality as
no spiritual meaning whatsoever. This would be kind of like a Pharisee looking
for a loophole. Another example of this would be a spinster saying she is going
to give up dating.
Why forty days? The number forty has always had mystical
significance in Christian doctrine. Traditionally, Lent is the commemoration of
the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the desert before outing himself as a
spiritual master. Other references to
the number forty in the Bible from Wiki are: “the forty days Moses spent on Mount Sinai with God (Exodus 24:18); the
forty days and nights Elijah spent walking to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8); the
forty days and nights God sent rain in the great flood of Noah (Genesis 7:4);
the forty years the Hebrew people wandered in the desert while traveling to the
Promised Land (Numbers 14:33); the forty days Jonah gave in his prophecy of
judgment to the city of Nineveh in which to repent or be destroyed (Jonah 3:4),
and finally, the belief that Jesus lay for forty hours in the tomb before his resurrection.”
Catholicism may be one of the reasons for my attraction to numerology-it is
loaded with repetitive numbers like seven, ten, and forty, etc. I suspect it
also may be how the lottery system got started.
Why would I, an
ex-Catholic, observe Lent? Obviously, I
am not bucking for sainthood. Maybe it’s because it harkens back to rituals we
do not allow ourselves to experience in this age of jam-packed schedules and
constant distractions. A period of time
for reflection to gain insight about who we are in relationship to what runs us
may be propitious. It may even change our minds, hearts, and habits.
So, what am I
giving up for lent? My soul. I am going
to meditate, be kinder, let go, be forgiving, ask for forgiveness, make amends,
and just try to be an all-around better human being. It may, however, be easier to just
give up candy.
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