Before Passiontide, Lent asks us: ‘What think you of Christ?’
This is the most important question of our lives, and each man must give an answer to it. Lent both asks the question, and gives us the answer.
This is the most important question of our lives, and each man must give an answer to it.
Lent is not Passiontide
Many Catholics instinctively associate Lent with the Passion of Christ, but the Church's traditional liturgy reveals a different emphasis.
In the traditional liturgy, Lent could be said to “end” on Passion Sunday (the Sunday before Palm Sunday), giving way to Passiontide. Passiontide falls within the forty days of Lent, but it may be considered a distinct liturgical season, due to its different spirit and liturgical features.
The Easter cycle begins in Septuagesima, in which the Roman Liturgy shows us the state of fallen man, his need for a Saviour, and what this salvation will cost him and each of us. On Ash Wednesday, we accepted the sentence of death which was first issued in the Garden of Eden, and readied ourselves to follow Christ on the way of the Cross.
But rather than immediately immerse us in the spirit of Passiontide, Lent takes us in a different direction—one that focuses on fasting and penance in the week, and on the power of Christ on the Sundays.
In the last piece, we considered how far the actual liturgy of the First Sunday of Lent is from this spirit, with no special mention of the Passion at all. Pope Pius XII notes this distinct spirit of the Sundays of Lent as follows:
“During the days of Septuagesima and Lent, our Holy Mother the Church over and over again strives to make each of us seriously consider our misery, so that we may be urged to a practical emendation of our lives, detest our sins heartily and expiate them by prayer and penance.
“In Holy Week, when the most bitter sufferings of Jesus Christ are put before us by the liturgy, the Church invites us to come to Calvary and follow in the blood-stained footsteps of the divine Redeemer, to carry the cross willingly with Him, to reproduce in our own hearts His spirit of expiation and atonement, and to die together with Him.”1
In other words, there is a distinction between Lent and Holy Week (which we could include as a part of Passiontide).
But if Lent is not yet Passiontide, then what is it? The focus on penance and on Christ’s majesty provides the answer: it is a time of preparation—both for the catechumens who will receive baptism at Easter, and for the faithful who must undergo purification through penance.
Only after this preparation does the Roman Liturgy admit us into its direct contemplation of that Holy of Holies—the Blessed Passion of Christ.
Preparation for Baptism
Although Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, it might be said to “begin in earnest” on the First Sunday of Lent. This Sunday marks the start of a period of preparation for baptism, culminating at Easter.
In the early Church, and at various times of persecution throughout history, (including today) being baptised really could lead to the loss of family, friends, position, and even life itself. In this Mass, as Lent starts in earnest, the Church seems concerned to offer comfort to those to be baptised—as well as the rest of us, who must do penance for our sins.
The proper chants of the First Sunday are saturated with the hope, confidence and trust of Psalm 90, of which the twentieth century liturgical writer Fr Johannes Pinsk writes:
“The worshipers wrap themselves, as it were, in the words of this Psalm, they wind the pictures and phrases of this Psalm like cloths around head and body and so stand, robed entirely in this Psalm, before the God they have come to worship.
“But being robed in this Psalm and standing before God in such a robe means nothing else than standing in the infinite compassion of God which suffices for every situation.”2
The Sundays of Lent—Showing us Christ
Pinsk’s words recall St Paul’s command that we “put on the armour of God”—mentioned also in the Epistle for that Sunday—so that we “may be able to resist in the evil day.” (Eph. 6.13) They also recall St Paul’s command that we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13.14).
This is crucially important, both for catechumens and for the baptised. The Gospel of this Mass depicts Our Lord emerging victorious from his combat with Satan in the desert. Although he is hungry, there seems to be little sign of weakness in him. On the contrary, as Fr Aloysius Ambruzzi writes:
“In this new kind of Eden, Christ faces the enemy and puts him to an ignominious flight, thus securing for us the courage and the strength to conquer all our temptations.
“We have but to imitate His promptitude in resisting the suggestions of the Evil One. Against the claims of the flesh and of vanity we must oppose, as Christ did, the rights of God and our duty to Him.”3
For us to win a similar victory, especially in times of persecution, we must not rely on our own powers, but rather we must “put on Christ” and abide in him. This is what Christ himself tells us on the eve of his passion:
“Abide in me: and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine: you the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15.4-5)
The Sundays of Lent prepare us to answer Our Lord’s question (specifically mentioned on the Third Sunday), and each man must give his answer to it:
“What think you of Christ? Whose son is he?” (Matt. 22.42)
Each Lenten Sunday shows us a different aspect of this Christ, in whom we are to abide. As our knowledge and love of him increases, we are to enter more and more into him, to rest under the shadow of his wings, and to stand before the Holy Trinity, robed in Christ and his grace. We are to allow him to transform our hearts, so that we can stand firm with him through Passiontide, and through whatever horrors might await us in our own lives, in the future.
This is the goal which the Church presents in her Lenten liturgies to those preparing to die to their old lives in baptism. She presents it also to those joining them through penance and Lenten fasting.
Once we have grasped what the Roman liturgy seems to be doing in Lent – preparing the catechumens for Passiontide and for their new life in Christ, attained through baptism – many interesting aspects of the liturgy fall into place.
For example, it may seem strange that the Gospel of the Second Sunday depicts the Transfiguration of Christ, which has its own commemoration in the liturgical year as a feast on 6th August. What are we to make of the Transfiguration appearing as a Gospel reading in Lent?
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