LESSONS FROM LITURGY: How Long is Lent? I Don’t Know, Keep Fasting . . .

By Father Thomas Pressley

The Universal Church has entered the liturgical season of Lent, known as the Great Fast, to prepare her children to celebrate worthily the resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter.  Grumbling tummies join the church choir as we accompany Christ in the wilderness for forty interminable days while our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help purge vice and grow the virtues indicative of the children of God. 

Whether in joyful anticipation for the Easter resurrection or in grumpy resignation to fasting, Catholics often count down the days and weeks of Lent.

How Long is Lent?

According to the USCCB, “Lent is a 40 day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday.”  Anyone who has tried to count forty days from Ash Wednesday finds the result confusing.  Forty days from Ash Wednesday is either Palm Sunday or Holy Saturday (depending on if we count Sundays), neither of which is Holy Thursday!  So how long is Lent, anyway?

Since apostolic times, the Church has prepared for the annual celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection with a period of fasting and prayer.  Christ seems to indicate the necessity when he tells John’s disciples: “the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Mt 9:15). 

In the ancient Church, Lent lasted  36 days — from Quadragesima, the sixth Sunday before Easter, to Holy Saturday, without counting Sundays.  St. Gregory the Great, pope from 590-604 A.D., considered the 36-day fast an annual penitential tithe to God (approximately one tenth of the year). 

During the seventh or eighth century, the beginning of Lent moved to the Wednesday before Quadragesima to make the total number of fasting days 40.

The number 40 is important: Moses fasted for 40 days in the presence of the Lord (Ex 34:28); Elijah traveled 40 days on his journey to meet the Lord (1 Kg 19:8); and the Lord prepared himself in the wilderness 40 days before his temptation (Mt 4:2).

In the 20th century, Pope Pius XII revised the Holy Week liturgies to facilitate attendance by the faithful with an emphasis on the Easter Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Although the season of Lent ends with the evening liturgy on Holy Thursday, the Lenten fast continues to the Easter Vigil, thus making 40 days of fasting without counting Sundays.

For those eager to return to the earlier 36 days of fasting, two solemnities land in the middle of Lent: St. Joseph on March 19 and the Annunciation on March 25. Considering these days as days of celebration, our Lenten fasting shortens to 36 days. Thanks, tradition!

But more important than deciphering the Lenten calendar are the Lenten practices themselves: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

The Triple Concupiscence

Scripture tells us that man is born with a triple concupiscence, “an inclination to evil” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 405), as a consequence of the Fall and original sin: “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (1 Jn 2:16).

St. Thomas Aquinas explains that the lust of the flesh inordinately seeks things which sustain the nature of the body, both individually (food and drink) and as a species (sex).  The lust of the eyes inordinately seeks the goods of imagination or perception (money and possessions — buying happiness).  The pride of life inordinately seeks a good difficult to obtain (honor and authority). 

In our fallen state, we seek these things because we think they will make us happy.  However, because we are made for relationship with God, nothing will truly satisfy until we seek God instead of created goods.

The bible provides examples and warnings against this triple concupiscence.

Adam and Eve fall to the three in the first temptation (Gen 3:6). Moses establishes rules to protect kings from the three (Dt 17:16-17), rules which Solomon ignores and thus falls to ruin (1 Kg 10:25-26; 11:3).  Jesus comes to the rescue with specific weapons for combatting the three: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (Mt 6:2-18).  These weapons allow us to fight against the inclination to false happiness so we can pursue true happiness in God.

Fasting, a deliberate denial of food and a sacrifice of physical pleasure, strengthens us against the lust of the flesh. Not only does fasting strengthen our will, but hungry people think about sex less; prisoners of war during World War II dreamed about ice cream more than women.

Almsgiving, giving away both material goods and performing acts of mercy, aids against the lust of the eyes by teaching us not to rely on money.  Perhaps surprisingly, giving away money is more enjoyable than hoarding it.

Prayer, communing with God, is required for all spiritual growth.  Giving my time to God reminds me that he is God and I am not.  Nothing we do is more important than our relationship with the Lord, and nothing defeats the pride of life like prayer.

A Holy Lent

Every Christian should have a habit of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The Church aids our spiritual growth by requiring these practices during Lent.

If we stay faithful to our Lenten observances, God will strengthen us to defeat the vices that keep us from greater sanctity and we will grow in the virtues of his Kingdom.