REC & APA
Cycle of Prayer

Reflections on Lent
by The Right Reverend Daniel R. Morse

For most people who think about Ash Wednesday and Lent, rejoicing is not the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, rejoicing and Christianity in general are two things that don’t fit together very well for most people, because Christianity is all about all the fun things one is not supposed to do. That idea is impressed upon us by various ads for cakes or candy that are "sinfully delicious." Christianity is about all the sinful things we must turn away from, and since we spend our "religious" time doing that all year long, we see no reason to make that a special emphasis for 40 days during Lent.

If we do not know how to be happy that Jesus has paid for our sins and released us from the eternal debt of hell, then we will not be able to be properly sorry for our sins either. Our sins and failures will just make us feel bad until we can manage to forget about them, or rid ourselves of them by engaging in some sinful anarchy. True repentance will escape us because we will have never experienced true happiness.

Several thousand years ago, King David was bringing the Ark of God into a city. This was a serious and awesome responsibility. Only a few months before, a man had died at the hand of the Lord for absent-mindedly touching the Ark. Yet it is recorded that David played before the Lord. With much shouting and leaping, he displayed his melodious voice and grace of movement before the Holy God. His wife, and probably most of those who observed him, thought him to be irreverent and so disapproved. But the Lord approved. She was made barren for the rest of her days, and David was blessed.

Two hundred years ago, one church that sponsored the education of children, created the following rule:

We prohibit play in the strongest terms. The students shall rise at five o’clock in the morning, summer and winter. The student shall be indulged with nothing which the world calls play. Let this rule be observed with strictest nicety; for those who play when they are young will play when they are old.

Unfortunately, the church and school were successful, and the children could not play when they grew into maturity. They knew very little of rejoicing before the Lord. And like David’s wife, their lives were made barren by the Lord.

T. S. Eliot addressed the same problem in the following poem:

Who is this that has said:

The house of GOD is a House of Sorrow,

We must walk in black and go sadly, with longdrawn faces,

We must go between empty walls, quavering lowly, whispering faintly,

Among a few flickering scattered lights?

They would put upon GOD their own sorrow, the grief they should feel

For their sins and faults as they go about their daily occasions.

Yet they walk in the street proudnecked, like thoroughbreds ready for races,

Adorning themselves, and busy in the market, the forum,

And all other secular meetings,

Thinking good of themselves, ready for any festivity,

Doing themselves very well.

Let us mourn in a private chamber, learning the way of penitence,

And then let us learn the joyful communion of saints.

That joyful communion of saints is expressed in this ancient Celtic Blessing for the Eve of Ash Wednesday:

We shall have mead,

We shall have wine,

We shall have feast.

We shall have sweetness and milk,

Honey and milk,

Wholesome ambrosia,

Abundance of that,

Abundance of that.

We shall have harp,

We shall have lute,

We shall have horn.

We shall have sweet psaltery

Of the melodious strings

And the regal lyre,

Of the songs we shall have,

Of the songs we shall have.

And the King of kings,

And Jesus Christ,

And the Spirit of peace

And of grace be with us,

Of grace be with us.

The sorrow and repentance of Ash Wednesday and Lent is true rejoicing because we remember that our Lord Jesus Christ has taken away our sins. We do not mourn over our sins as those who have no hope, but in joyful hope we remind ourselves during this Lenten fast of Christ’s call to leave sin so that we may have true happiness.

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