As we are half way through the season of Lent, it is a good time to reflect upon what it is we are doing in this liturgical season.  

The word Lent comes from Anglo-Saxon Lencten, meaning spring.  So Lent is a season of new growth, which is why in the first centuries of the Church, Lent was geared toward instructing new converts in preparation for baptism at Easter; the converts were in that stage of new spiritual growth.

However, the season of Lent has a long history and its roots take us back to the Bible.  The Latin, Lent is called quadragesima, and originally signified 40 hours of complete fasting which preceded the Easter celebration.  By the fourth century, the time of preparation was standardised throughout Christendom to a period of 40 days, and included baptised Christians as well as converts.  The number 40 certainly has a symbolic importance throughout the Bible: Moses and Elias both spent 40 days in the wilderness; the Jews wandered 40 years in the desert; Jonah gave the city of Nineveh 40 days to repent; and Jesus fasted 40 days in the wilderness to prepare for his ministry. For him, it was a time of contemplation and reflection.

When I reflect upon the story of Moses leading the people around in the desert and how they thought that they would never find their way out of that desert, I am also reminded how each of us have each at times gone in the wrong direction.  Sometimes the direction we follow leads us in the exact opposite direction we had intended to go.  Sometimes that Lotto ticket that was to win us millions, wins us nothing.  Sometimes the energy we invest in a project does not bear the fruit we hope it would have.  In so many ways, we are lead to believe, that our lives are being overtaken by uncontrollable events around us.

Jesus teaches us in the Gospels that life has power over death.  Death is not just what happens to each of us at the end of our earthly journey, but it is what happens to us in tiny ways each time things do not go the way we think they should.  It is what happens to us when life is measured by my unfulfilled desires.  Death happens to us, day in and day out, each time we reduce life to my way or no way.

Jesus speaks of life in a broader sense, life is not just what I experience, but it is that opportunity I have to choose how to live.  As we journey through the rest of this season of new growth, let us look for ways to choose life in every situation and with every person, and then, let us grow into those choices and live the life we have been given.

Every good wish to you, 

Steve McCann