by Brett Manero
It’s been a while since I wrote a new article: I was traveling in Europe, finishing the first class of my doctoral program, and generally just catching up on life. But here I am, and we are already something like halfway (or more than that) through the holy season of Lent.
Lent is still, perhaps, my favorite time of year. It is sacred, it is peaceful, it is challenging, and yet it is lovely. Catholics don’t often think of a penitential season like Lent as “lovely,” but I truly believe it is. As a kid, I always enjoyed the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday because it meant that spring was not too far away. Admittedly, this is a still a reason for why I enjoy the start of Lent, but as an adult, my appreciation of it has certainly evolved.
There is something about the human spirit that enjoys discipline. As humans, we are hardwired both for leisure, but also for discipline. It is discipline which makes us greater, better, holier. There is even something about suffering which is beneficial to the human person. I may not be as young as I once was (I recently turned thirty-nine), but one of the most hauntingly true verses of Scripture is found in Lamentations:
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth (Lamentations 3:27-28).
The Prophet Jeremiah (typically thought to be the author of Lamentations), is writing this haunting poem about the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian invasion of 586 BC. The fall of Jerusalem is a monumental event, an absolute travesty for the Chosen People. But Jeremiah, in classic prophetic wisdom, makes the all-important point: in a strange way, this is good for the Chosen People. The shock of the loss of their city and land, while dreadfully painful at the time, will be a discipline that will benefit them in the future. They are, in a way, still a “young” people with so much to learn.
The Prophet Baruch – the successor to Jeremiah – makes another important point while living with the exiled Jews in Babylon:
But in the land of their exile they will come to themselves, and they will know that I am the Lord their God (Baruch 2:30-31).
We could translate this as: in the years of your discipline, you shall grow up, you shall be better, you shall truly become the good people you were always destined to be. This is a magic of the Exile: their seventy years in a foreign country truly works wonders, as it disciplines and shapes them into learning a wisdom they never knew before.
With Lent, we don’t go into exile to a foreign country for decades. Our modern version of Lent is in many ways rather simple: we are only required to fast for two days (on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday), and we voluntarily make sacrifices. But even in the smallest acts of self-discipline, there can be enormous benefit.
For the melancholy like myself, perhaps the greatest comfort of Lent is simply thinking of Jesus Christ as He endured forty days of loneliness and temptation in the wilderness. He was alone, hungry, most certainly longing for company. He was also most certainly sad, as He “recapitulated” the long, sad history of the human race all the way back to Adam and Eve. He truly becomes the new Adam and the new Israel: where Adam failed, Jesus succeeds. Where Israel failed in the wilderness for forty years, Jesus succeeds in the wilderness in forty days. He looks upon the ugly reality of sin and all of its terrible effects on human history, and He must have been saddened by that.
And it is in this that we find a certain, strange comfort in Lent. Where we are sad and depressed, we know that Jesus felt the same way. When we are tempted, we know He was too. When we are lonely and wondering if there is anyone whom we can call our “friend,” we know He wondered the same. That is the beauty of Lent.
Easter is just a few weeks away. Let’s have a lovely rest of our Lent.
Leave a Reply