The early Church became increasingly aware that Easter was the pinnacle of Christian life, the history of the Church and the world. Indeed, the early Christians were fascinated by the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection, which comes to restore everything, both humanity and the universe. That is why, in the Church, the need was felt for a single celebration for Easter. Since the 2nd century, a special Sunday has been reserved for the celebration of Easter. The Christian community has always felt the need to prepare itself in the best possible way to celebrate Easter, namely with prayer and fasting.
Moreover, the Holy Spirit leads the Church to the practice of reserving baptism and Christian initiation for the Eucharist celebrated on Easter night. Indeed, Romans 6 calls for baptism to be conferred during the Easter feasts. At the same time, the period of intellectual, moral and spiritual preparation desired for all Christians takes on more intensive connotations for catechumens, in view of their forthcoming initiation.
When Holy Thursday then became the day set aside for the reconciliation of penitents, these, in turn, would be for all Christians a further solicitation and a renewed motive for asceticism and prayer. It is therefore normal that these different interests, with their riches, led to a progressive evolution.
The ancient Easter Triduum began on Good Friday (the Lord’s death) and, passing through Holy Saturday (Jesus’ reposition in the tomb), culminated on Easter night and Resurrection Day (at dawn on Easter Sunday). On these days, fasting had festive connotations of enlightenment.
This custom was present in the Church of Alexandria as early as the 3rd century. In Rome, on the other hand, we know that the Sunday and Friday before Easter were called De Passione and that the Wednesday and Friday of the same week were called aliturgical days, i.e. days during which the Eucharist was not celebrated. In the fifth century, the Passion narrative would be read on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays[1] , a very ancient practice.
It was in the 4th century that a three-week preparation period for Easter was organised.
In fact, the third Sunday before Easter (excluding Easter) was entitled Dominica in mediana, which is a typically Roman denomination[2] ; moreover, this week was reserved for Ordinations[3]
During these three weeks, the liturgy of the Word was characterised by the proclamation of passages from the Gospel of John referring to the coming Easter and the presence of Jesus in Jerusalem .[4]
This preparation, of which there is certain evidence, began just before 384. Its character was predominantly ascetic, in fact the custom of having penitents who had prepared for forty days reconcile on Holy Thursday was introduced, according to the prescriptions of Peter of Alexandria (†311) .[5]
This preparation began on the first of the six Sundays (later it was brought forward to the Wednesday immediately preceding). Hence the name Quadragesima.
The celebration of the Wednesday and Friday preceding Lent began towards the end of the 5th century, as if they were part of the Lenten season. Thus the rite of the imposition of ashes on penitents is performed on the Wednesday of the week preceding the first Sunday of Lent, a rite that will later be extended to all Christians. From the Gelasian Sacramentary we know that Ash Wednesday is considered caput quadragesimae, because it was the day on which the strict spiritual retreat that ended on Holy Thursday began for penitents.
The week of Ash Wednesday, during the 6th century, is dedicated to pre-Easter preparation. The Sunday with which it begins is called Quinquagesima, because it is the fiftieth day before Easter.
At the beginning of the 7th century we find a further extension of Lent: the Septuagesima and Sexagesima. These institutions, like that of the Wednesday preceding the first Sunday of Lent, denote a strange tendency to anticipate the strong time of Lent proper and somewhat weaken its distinctiveness[6]
The progressive evolution of Lent, a sometimes wild evolution, required a courageous renewal, especially if, as in the past, the organisation of the adult catechumenate was to be linked to this period.
A first task was imposed: to scale down the entire period, restoring the forty days to their full significance. It was therefore necessary to suppress Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. At this point, however, a problem arose. Was it not necessary, in order to give Lent back its precise dimensions, to also suppress Ash Wednesday, moving its celebration to the Monday following the first Sunday of Lent? Having carefully weighed everything up, the best solution seemed to be to leave the calendar of this Wednesday unchanged, since such a long tradition, known even to non-Christians, did not allow for such a radical change. Logically, this choice had to have certain consequences: Ash Wednesday then became the beginning of Lent and, consequently, the Lenten forms, such as hymns etc., which until then had only been used from the first Sunday, had to be placed on this day. We can verify this by consulting the second volume of the Liturgy of the Hours, the third edition of the Roman Missal and the second edition of the Festive Lectionary in the three cycles.[7]
In my Sunday lectio, when the Season of Lent begins, I have often written: Let us respect Lent! This is because, a modus vivendi has been established which Lent has become the period of renunciations (= what we take away from the table, and: we donate the proceeds to charitable works), not smoking for the whole of Lent, or other types of renunciations. All initiatives that have their value and respectable intentions.
I believe that the Lenten period is much more than that. In fact, during the Lenten period we should meditate on whether, when pain, whether physical or moral, occurs in our lives: do we live it on the model of Christ in his passion, or do we rebel, against God, against life, against those who can be held responsible for what has happened to us?
Do we know how to accept, following the example of Christ, the pain of exclusion, loneliness, prejudice? Or do we seek compromise in order to climb back up the slope? In order to be able, even at the cost of an omertous silence, to maintain the esteem of those who currently play important roles?
Lent is therefore that period of the liturgical year that must lead us to reflect seriously on ourselves: whether we are living the vocation to which the Lord has called us, or whether we are fulfilling a role that is not ours, with the due consequences.
Do we remember that we are baptised and we must implement the gospel by virtue of the baptismal promises we have accepted, and therefore we must live as Christians in the Church?
Do we bear in mind that the role we have been given is not a power, but a service to the Church? Always according to the baptism we have received and confirmed, are we vigilant each day, so as not to use the weak and the poor for our own aims and plans? and then discard these brothers and sisters, should they become inconvenient or dangerous and undermine our foolish power projects, when the Lord has told us that it is the last place a Christian should sit, following his example?
In my opinion, the Lenten period is an excellent instrument for a Christian to test his life in difficult times, following the example of Christ.
Fr. Giorgio Bontempi C.M.
[1] A. CHAVASSE, The Easter cycle. The preparation for Easter, in A.G. MARTIMORT, La Chiesa in preghiera, Roma, 763.
[2] M. ANDRIEU, Les Ordines romani du haut moyen age, III, Louvain 1951, 311-312. Quoted from La Quaresima ed. ADRIEN NOCENT, In Anàmnesis, L’anno Liturgico, Ed. AA.VV. Genoa, Marietti, 1988, 153.
[3] Fr. Jounel, in The Church at Prayer, cited above, p. 88.
[4] A. CHAVASSE, The Easter Cycle, cit.,764.
[5] Ibid, 760
[6] Anàmnesis, cit. 155.
[7] Idem, 159.
