These Forty Days

Leading up to the great celebration of the mysteries of the death and resurrection of Christ during Holy Week, the Church calls us to forty days of penitence.

The Lenten Season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving has been observed by Christians since Apostolic times. Indeed, Christ himself retreated to the desert for forty days, where he was tempted by the devil, and he later said that his disciples should fast “when the bridegroom is taken away from them” (Matthew 9:15).

The idea of forty days as an appropriate time of reflection and walking with God is much older than the New Testament, however: Moses spent forty days with God on Sinai (Exodus 24:18), Elijah spent forty days walking to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8), and Jonah gave the citizens of Nineveh forty days to repent (Jonah 3:4).

Let’s not forget the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years before arriving in the Promised Land, much as we wander for forty days in the “deserts” of Lent before arriving at the celebrations of our promised Salvation.

Lent is more than “giving up chocolate” – Lent is a time when we are called to strip from ourselves everything that distracts us from the true mission of our pilgrimage on earth: to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

During this time of the year, I am often drawn to the writings of the Desert Fathers. These early Christians withdrew into the deserts of Egypt and Sinai in the third century of the Christian era.

Today, I will leave you with this thought from the Desert Fathers for your Mardi Gras, as we prepare for tomorrow’s beginning of Lent:

Theophilus of holy memory, bishop of Alexandria, journeyed to Scetis and the brethren coming together said to Abba Pambo, “Say a word or two to the bishop, that his soul may be edified in this place.”

The old man replied, “If he is not edified by my silence, there is no hope that he will be edified by my words.”