LENT
Like so much of Catholic teaching one must have an understanding of both the old and new testaments. That, "..the new is hidden in the old and the old is revealed in the new." St. Augustine.
The 40 days of Lent consist of the forty days from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday not including Sundays because it is the Lord's day, that is the day that Christ rose from the dead. (Sunday is also the day Christ appeared to the apostles who had hidden themselves behind locked doors after his crucifixion.) An understanding of the liturgical calendar is helpful for understanding Lent as well.
Essentially what we see in the old testament more than once is a reference to the number forty. For instance following Israel's being freed from Egyptian bondage by God through the person of Moses the Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert searching for the promised land. God's chosen people, his "first born" left their captors in faith and belief in their God, Jehovah , yet along the way they fell in and out of faith with God. While Moses was on the mountain conversing with God the Israelites talked Aaron into making the Golden Calf that they worshiped. Finally after years of wandering they find the promised land, the promised gift.
In the new testament before beginning his ministry our Lord, the first born son, went into the desert, fasting and being tempted by Satan. After many days Jesus is ministered to by angels. What are the similarities between these two elements of scripture? In both, the "first born" goes into the desert. Both suffer, the Israelites because of their lack of faith and Jesus though his own fasting. Both are tempted, the Israelites by the desire to revert to the pagan worship they lived among in Egypt where at least they knew what they had and through lack of faith yearned for the past, and Jesus by Satan who promised everything to Jesus if he would only bow down and worship him. While the Israelites succumbed to temptation, Jesus did not. Both receive a gift, the Israelites the promised land and Jesus is ministered to by angels. The gift is given not because it is deserved, but rather because God is good and merciful.
As Christians we must all journey into the desert. Everyone's suffering is different, and suffering will come at different times in our lives as God wills or allows. Not because he wills that we suffer, but rather because at certain times in our lives we must go into the desert to find our way back to him. It is in the desert where we must find our way by God's Grace to his Truth. Lent is meant to symbolize the desert, and our penance symbolizes our suffering. When we give up something we think of as important, something we crave, it is a way of defeating our physical passions. Control of the physical body is symbolic of control of the will. If we learn to subdue our physical passions we can learn to subdue our will. For a Christian to subdue our passions is not simply a matter of "controlling" our will, but rather a giving over of our will to God by welcoming his will into our lives. This is the purpose of giving up chocolate for Lent. It may seem a small thing, but it is sometimes the small things that help us to learn how to deal with the big things.
"Lent should also be a time for deeper meditation on the word of God, which will lead to conversion (a deep relationship with Christ) and to concrete acts of charity." Pope Benedict XIV. Studying scripture can help to deepen our faith. By faith we can better conform our will to that of God and do the work of Jesus as he commanded. Besides giving up something we can perform works of charity by working at a homeless shelter, visiting the elderly in a nursing home, the sick in the hospital or the imprisoned. We can help at a hospice facility, soup kitchen even an animal shelter.
The point of doing these kinds of things is that our bodies are one with our souls, and what we do with our bodies, good or bad, has consequences on our souls. For by God's grace the body and the soul are "one" until the time it is separated by God, and yet it remains one in that God will bring the two together in His time. Lent is a time to practice self-discipline. If we can do it for forty days try adding ten more days, and ten more. Lent is meant to show that we can indeed subdue our passions.
Finally, Lent is also a time of preparation for the arrival into the city, the death and rising of the King. The passion of the Christ.
