Lent is a fast, whose origin lies with new Christians preparing themselves to be baptized on Easter Day. Still today some Christian sects baptize all their new members on Easter Day. Candidates for baptism would have fasted for a period, but probably of two or three days fasting rather than forty - reflecting the three days our Lord was in the tomb, rather than the forty in the desert.
The earliest mention of a forty day fast comes in the Canons of Nicea from 325 AD, reflecting our Lord's fast, and the fasts of Moses and Elijah. Forty is a special number in Scripture, often representing a period of temptation or suffering, or a time of being laid waste. The people of Israel took forty long years to journey to the Promised Land.
Lent for Christians is a time when we conscientiously imitate our Lord’s preparation in the wilderness. What sort of a fast should we keep? Centuries ago the Lenten fast was much stricter than it is now. Only one meal a day was allowed, to be taken towards evening. The meal eaten would not include meat or fish, and usually also eggs and lacticinia (milk, cheese and so forth) would be excluded. This is quite like the strict Muslim fast of Ramadan, when nothing is eaten or drunk by the faithful until the sun sets.
But those rules were slackened. By the 9th century the hour for breaking the fast had moved to three in the afternoon, at least for ordinary folk, and by the 15th century even monks and nuns usually broke their fast at noon, when the evening office of Vespers was specially said much earlier than at other seasons.
From the middle ages fish became regarded as a vegetable, and could therefore be eaten on Fridays through the year and generally during Lent. That’s why monasteries generally had large carp ponds. In time dairy products began to be permitted as well.
But why fast anyway? For Jesus this was so he could concentrate his mind on his Father’s will. But for us Lent became a time of penance in which to do something about what the Prayer Book calls “our manifold sins and wickedness.” In the early Church there was much debate about those who had fallen from faith in times of persecution, and who now wanted to return. Even if they were to be allowed back into church, clearly they couldn't just come straight back. So for them Lent was a time for making penance, and appealing for forgiveness. But it’s a time we all need; we all fall short, no-one is sinless.
And fasting isn't just giving things up, but also taking things on. So Lent included extra times of prayer, extra times of study, perhaps even extra times of mortification. Pilgrimages might be made in Lent. When these days we think of Lent only in terms of giving things up, and often even then with our physical health in mind, rather than thinking about what might help us serve God better, we miss the point of the fast. Lent is a time to give up things that get too important in our lives, because and obscure the call of God; and to put in place things that are spiritually good and useful.
We do still use Lent as a time for studying and learning, but sadly most Lent courses are attended by only a minority of church members - it would be great if more came, and it would be great if those who didn’t some were reading improving books at home. In the past, candidates for baptism would learn what the Church taught about Jesus, about the cross, about the sacraments - so that at Easter they could say with confidence: 'Jesus is my Lord' and be baptized.
Lent used to begin today, on a Sunday. In medieval times it was extended back to Ash Wednesday to make up the full forty days, Sundays excluded. The ashes on Ash Wednesday come by tradition from last year's Palm Crosses. And ash is marked on the foreheads of the faithful with the words 'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Repent, and believe the Gospel'. In those words at the start of Lent we are reminded that we can't do this on our own. We need what our Lord has done for us, and we need to dedicate ourselves to him.
Before Ash Wednesday we have some days called Ante-Lent. Ante with an e meaning before, but it could easily have an i meaning against, because with the coming fast in mind the last days before it began had an element of revel, over-consumption and misrule about them. Shrove Tuesday was a day like that, even though the word Shrove means penitence. Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, probably a better title; pancakes used up the butter and eggs in the house, making for a bit of a feast. Mardi Gras elsewhere in the world became a time of carnival and procession. Some local customs still exist that allow folk to go a bit mad on Shrove Tuesday. The children of a village might be given free reign to go through the streets extorting money, cakes and goodies from the residents; and some wild and fearsome football matches still happen, like the one in Ashbourne that seems to involve virtually the whole town.
Many such customs had all but vanished in Britain by the end of the 18th century, but, sadly, so had the keeping of Lent in any really organised and sincere sense. But in the 19th century two things happened more or less at the same time: people rediscovered and sometimes invented local traditions; and the new Anglo-Catholic movement in the Church revived the keeping of fasts and festivals of all kinds, especially encouraging a more zealous keeping of Lent.
So that brings us to where we are today. My dictionary of the Christian Church tells me that 'Lent is now widely kept'. But it’s the 1957 edition, and our keeping of Lent is now much weaker. I’m sad about that. I’d like us to revive some of the old Lent customs and maybe to look at some new ideas, like pilgrimages with prayers and activities using sites within the church building (or Christian labyrinths as they’re sometimes called - something I tried in a previous parish). If Jesus needed time to prepare and to get right with his Father, so do we. So maybe it’s time for a new revival of Lent. Maybe that would make our churches holier places, more in tune with what God wants from us; maybe that would make God’s people more fit for service and witness to a world that needs all that we can give it in terms of prayer, holiness, generosity of spirit, Godly peace, and - with a nod towards today which is the Feast of St Valentine - simple old-fashioned love.
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