40 Days of Lent

Here we are, 10 days into our 40 day celebration of Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday.  Many people over the years have taken their calendar off the wall and counted the days and have found that 40 days doesn’t bring us all the way to Easter.  When that happens, many people begin to make up explanations and computations to stretch the 40 days to fit between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

One explanation that has been offered over the years is that Sundays aren’t counted in Lent.  The explanation says that because on Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, we are called to be joyful, not penitent or reflective.  Some even pick up the bad habits they said they would put down for Lent on Sundays because, they claim, Sundays don’t count.

Lent is a time of penitence and introspection during which we take stock of our lives and our relationships to discover what we must change in ourselves to prepare to be truly ready to meet the Risen Savior on Easter. 

What most of us miss is that the number 40 is mystical, not literal.  It reminds us of Moses’ 40 years in the desert, the prophet Elijah’s 40 day fast and our Lord’s own 40 days of prayer and fasting in the desert.  The number 40 in Hebrew numerology always signifies a trial, so to say something lasted 40 days meant that it was a difficult period not that it was 5 weeks and 5 days long.

We are called to look more to the spirit of the law and less to the letter of the law.  Just as Jesus himself railed against those who prided themselves in living the letter of the law without examining where their hearts were; we are challenged to live by the spirit of our laws.  The first day of Lent began on Ash Wednesday, and the 40th day of Lent is Palm Sunday; but the season of preparation for our Lord’s Resurrection doesn’t end there: we move right from Palm Sunday into Holy Week. 

It’s only natural for us to want to put away the inspection of our lives that we’ve been doing.  After all, introspection, when done sincerely, is difficult work. 

We are given 40 days, plus Holy Week to ask ourselves what can be hard questions:  “How aware am I of sin’s power in my life?”, “How aware am I of my personal sin?”, “Am I ready to let God evaluate my life?”, and maybe the most difficult question for some of us, “Am I ready to open my heart to God’s forgiveness?”

Whether we count Lent at 40 days with Sundays off for good behavior, or 46 days with our Holy Week sacrifices, our journey this season through meditation, contemplation and vocal prayer, allows us to be humbled before the Lord our God.