Lent

 BASIC R.C.BELIEF

The name given to the 40 week days before Easter, starting Ash Wednesday.

During Lent Roman Catholics are supposed to undergo some voluntary privation and penance in anticipation of Christ's sufferings.

AN EXPLANATION OF THE BALTIMORE CATECHISM, page 209, explains that fasting during Lent is one of the chief means by which we satisfy God for the temporal punishment due to sin.

POST VATICAN II

From EXPRESSIONS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH, Kevin Johnson, Imp. Charles Grahmann, Bishop of Dallas, p. 50. "In fact, seasons like Lent and Advent were set up to remind us of the need for acts of penance to serve as punishment for sins and acts of charity to make up for them."

CATHOLIC JOURNALS

THIS ROCK, January 1994 gives a more modern Catholic concept. "By having the sign of the cross made on their foreheads with ashes, Catholics mourn Christ's suffering on the cross and their own sins, which made that suffering necessary."

CHRISTIAN COMMENT

There is no scriptural warrant for such a period; many Roman Catholics don't give up things of consequence, and those who do feel this aids in salvation. This concept of privation has resulted in pre-Lenten festivals: Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and carnival (carne val, farewell to meat).

In pagan Babylon, 40 days were observed weeping for Tammuz (Nimrod), that he would rise from the dead and cause Spring to begin. With other pagan customs, this became a part of the Church. Msgr. Sullivan in EXTERNALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (p. 209) says, "From about the 4th century, Lent became a fast of forty days."

Lent by Miles McKee (www.milesmckee@comcast.net)

There is no Bible command to observe Lent---Lent is a tradition of man.

The good news of Christ's victory in life and death should be kept central the entire year. The cross and resurrection is to be kept at the heart of all we do, not merely at Easter. Likewise, the incarnation should be preached all year---not merely at Christmas!

For people to go around giving up their favorite things and by doing so hoping to obtain divine favor, is to fly in the face of the gospel. If divine favor can be gained by self-sacrifice, then Christ Jesus could have stayed in heaven and avoided the pain, rejection and wrath!

There is only one way only to God---it is not through self, good works or sacrifice, but rather through the doing and dying of Christ. By faith, we believe that as He lived, he lived for us and as He died He died for us and as he arose and ascended into Heaven, He did this on our behalf. "He that believeth on Him is not condemned" (John 3:18).