WITH the start of Lent this week, the Church has embarked upon what is, like Advent, a season of hope. It is as well to remember this at what has lately been a low point in the Church of England’s life. Just as Advent looks forward to the celebration of Christmas, the coming of our Lord, so Lent looks forward to Easter, his resurrection. Easter being the queen of feasts, the period of preparation is longer; and, since Easter is not anticipated by carol services, parties, and the commercial bonanza that has more or less submerged Advent, the faithful are still able to find in this season plenty of opportunities to pause, take stock of their lives, including their sins, deal with some of the distractions that come to the life of prayer, enter into Christ’s sufferings, and arrive at Easter better able to enter into its joy.
Lent in many Church of England parishes is probably not as full a devotional round as it would have been a few decades ago: weekday Stations of the Cross, afternoon talks, special services for the Mothers’ Union or other parochial organisations, frequent celebration of the eucharist, the home groups studying a Lent book. . . There may be both fewer laity and fewer clergy to sustain such efforts. The loss of that sense of communal spirituality may already be a wound in a parish’s life. But those acts of worship that survive will usually be found to reward any effort made to support them, and will (it should be remembered) always be new to someone. New (or thought-to-be-new) things have come in, often, perhaps, aimed at young families and with a tendency more to anticipate Easter than to keep Lent. But these may be the building blocks of a fuller commitment.
And, yes, Lent remains a fast. Since Ramadan has begun, it is worth pointing out that Christians are not in a competition with Muslims about this. The two fasts are very different in character. A strictly observed Lent is a very austere thing, and austerity is not an aspect of Christianity which suits Western temperaments. But it is also true that at present many people’s lives already have an inescapable austerity woven into them, and it is not for individuals to judge each other’s sacrifices; indeed, those giving up the most may be the least likely to talk about it. Austin Farrer wrote, in The Crown of the Year: “It is as necessary now as it ever was that we should show our prayers to be in earnest. . . Nothing but action can give seriousness to our desire for God. We are in earnest if for God’s sake we displease ourselves. If we abstain from needless indulgence, much more, if we find the weak point in our service of God, and attack it with resolution. Resolutions are no good, unless we are prepared to find them broken, and to renew them, every day.” That is where a good Lent begins, both for individual sinners and their Church.
