Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD
Lent is traditionally described as lasting for forty days, in commemoration of the forty days which, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus, may peace be on him, spent fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by the Devil.[2][3] However, different Christian denominations calculate the forty days of Lent differently. In most Western traditions the Sundays are not counted as part of Lent; thus the period from Ash Wednesday until Easter consists of 40 days when the Sundays are excluded. However in the Roman Catholic Church Lent is now taken to end on Holy Thursday rather than Easter Eve, and hence lasts 38 days excluding Sundays, or 44 days in total.
The Quranic verse it reminds me of is, none other than the one, where Allah prescribes fasting for the believers:
“O ye who believe! fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard against evil.” (Al Quran 2:184)
I have covered this verse in some detail in an article: Religious History of Fasting: How it Establishes the Truth of the Holy Quran!
So, the celebration of Lent and fasting that goes with it, by 2 billion Christians, is a testimony to the truth of this verse, revealed in the desert of Arabia, in the seventh century. There is no vagueness about this verse, which makes a very emphatic statement that fasting was prescribed in all revealed religions. The Holy Quran also claims that there are no people to whom a warner or a prophet has not been sent, “Indeed, We have sent thee with the truth, as a bearer of glad tidings and as a Warner; and there is no people to whom a Warner has not been sent.” (Al Quran 35:25)
I do not yet know, when and how the 40 day celebration of Jesus’ fasting was moved around to coincide with Easter celebrations, or how did the Church find out that Jesus’ fasting was around the time of Passover or Easter, but, this will be an interesting research topic. However, the motivation of this merger is rather easy to guess. If we understand, Pauline version of Christianity to be an obsession with the death and resurrection of Jesus, then it will make all the sense to top off Easter celebrations with a forty day aura of Lent to precede it. However, coercing of the two together is evident from the fact that the celebrations are not exactly 40 days, as noted in the counting in the first paragraph.
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:12-19)
Lent (Latin: Quadragesima) is a solemn observance in the liturgical year of many Christian denominations, lasting for a period of approximately six weeks leading up to Easter Sunday. In the general Latin-rite and most Western denominations Lent is taken to run from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) morning or to Easter Eve. In the Catholic Church, Lent lasts until Holy Thursday, while other denominations run until Easter Eve.
The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving, and self-denial.
During Lent, many of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence. The Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christ’s carrying the Cross and of his execution, are often observed. Many Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches remove flowers from their altars, while crucifixes, religious statues, and other elaborate religious symbols are often veiled in violet fabrics in solemn observance of the event. In certain pious Catholic countries, some adherents mark the season with the traditional abstention from the consumption of meat. [1]
Fasting during Lent was more severe in ancient times than today. Socrates Scholasticus reports that in some places, all animal products were strictly forbidden, while others will permit fish, others permit fish and fowl, others prohibit fruit and eggs, and still others eat only bread. In some places, the observant abstained from food for an entire day; others took only one meal each day, while others abstained from all food until mid-afternoon. In most places, however, the practice was to abstain from eating until the evening, when a small meal without vegetables or alcohol was eaten.
During the early Middle Ages, meat, eggs and dairy products were generally forbidden. Thomas Aquinas argued that “they afford greater pleasure as food [than fish], and greater nourishment to the human body, so that from their consumption there results a greater surplus available for seminal matter, which when abundant becomes a great incentive to lust.”[15]
However, dispensations for dairy products were given, frequently for a donation, from which several churches are popularly believed to have been built, including the “Butter Tower” of the Rouen Cathedral. In Spain, the bull of the Holy Crusade (renewed periodically after 1492) allowed the consumption of dairy products[16] and eggs during Lent in exchange for a contribution to the conflict.
Why is Lent forty days? It seems that the writers of many of the books of the Bible, have tweaked numbers to create patterns for their naïve readers. One adjustment that is in place is of 12 apostles to correspond with the 12 tribes of Israel.
If Judas is considered to be a villain, rather than a hero, as traditionally judged by the Christians, then the total number of apostles falls down to 11. However, if Jesus, may peace be on him, was on a suicidal mission, for vicarious atonement of humanity, then Judas is an accomplice to the plan and a hero.
At any rate, we are talking about the 40 days of Lent. The number forty has many Biblical references: the forty days Moses spent on Mount Sinai with God (Exodus 24:18); the forty days and nights Elijah spent walking to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8); the forty days and nights God sent rain in the great flood of Noah (Genesis 7:4); the forty years the Hebrew people wandered in the desert while traveling to the Promised Land (Numbers 14:33); the forty days Jonah gave in his prophecy of judgment to the city of Nineveh in which to repent or be destroyed (Jonah 3:4).
Categories: CHRISTIANITY, Islam, Religion