CORRECTION: Lent and Counting: 40 Days, Saturdays, Sundays, Fasts, Feasts, Sunsets, and Reconcilation of the Penitent

One careless sentence, darn it, leads to writing out not only a correction, but an explanation of the material. On the other hand, it's such exciting material! So here goes!

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So, if Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, when exactly does it end?

Well, one would assume it would be Easter, of course. Except if one begins on Ash Wednesday and starts counting the days, day number 40 would turn out to be Palm Sunday, not Easter. SO, one might assume that the reason we read the Passion on Palm Sunday is because we've reached the end of Lent, and have now entered the Passion.

If that were the case, then Lent, Holy Week, and Easter would follow one another as separate seasons.

Except....

Lent is a fast. And Sundays are NEVER fast days... ever. Sundays represent Easter, the Lord's Day, the Day of Resurrection. The reason why Roman Catholics traditionally fasted every Friday is that EVERY Friday was a reminder of Good Friday, fitting with the remembrance that EVERY Sunday is a reminder of Easter. The traditional day of Christian worship became Sunday, not because Christians moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, but because they broke bread together on the day of resurrection ("the Lord's Day") from the very beginning.

(In the early years of Christianity, when all Christians were Jewish, as good Jews they kept the Sabbath AND also celebrated the day of resurrection ("the Lord's Day"). Later, as non-Jews ("gentiles") poured into the Christian community without first converting to Judaism, the practice of keeping the Sabbath proportionally disappeared in importance, as the gentile proportion of the Christian community increasingly overwhelmed the Jewish proportion. Eventually the Jewish proportion would be s0 overwhelmed by gentiles that it was unfortunately rendered essentially invisible, as would the Sabbath. All that remained visible was the the day of resurrection ("the Lord's Day"), and most gentile Christians would simply assume that the Sabbath was moved from Saturday to Sunday. It did not move. The Sabbath -- the most important day of the week from a Jewish perspective (because it is the sign of the Mosaic Covenant) always was and still is Saturday. Sunday is the most important day of the week from a Christian perspective because is the the day of resurrection ("the Lord's Day"). Those Jews who are also Christians get both; Jews who are not Christians get only Saturday, gentiles who are Christians get only Sunday, and gentiles who are not Christians get neither the Sabbath nor the Lord's Day!)

SO... because Sunday is the day of resurrection ("the Lord's Day"), it is never a Fast day... it's always a Feast day. Even in Lent.

SO if one begins counting on Ash Wednesday, and does NOT count Sundays, one arrives on Day #40 on the Saturday before Easter.

It works!

Then there is the whole "Triduum" thing -- the three days of the Passion, begininng with Maundy Thursday, the first day of the passion, including Good Friday, the second day of the Passion, and concluding with Holy Saturday, the third day of the Passion. This concludes at sunset of Holy Saturday, for in Jewish and Christian/liturgical tradition, days begin and end not at midnight (as our secular calendar does), nor at sunrise, but at sunset. Lent would begin on Wednesday at 12:01 am, if we were secularists (but then why keep Lent????), or at sunrise if the day began at sunrise. But since we are Christian liturgists we begin and the end the day as we always have in Jewish and Christian tradition, at sunset. So Lent begins just after sunset on what we call, secularly, Tuesday. And Lent ends at sunset of Holy Saturday, and the Day of Resurrection (the Lord's Day, Easter) begins just after sunset.

Jesus rose from the dead sometime after sunset and before sunrise. We can't pin it down any more than that. We know for sure that he remained dead from Friday afternoon until sometime before sunrise on Sunday. Sometime on the first day of the week, after sunset Saturday and before sunrise, he broke the bonds of death, arose, and departed the grave. We know this because the women arrived at the tomb at sunrise -- to discover that he had already gone. The Passion begins with the Maundy Thursday last supper and arrest in the garden. But he dies Friday afternoon. Thus, Good Friday is the first day (of his death). Holy Saturday (the Sabbath) is the second day, which began just after Friday's sunset and ends at Saturday's sunset. On the third day, the first day of the week, which begins at Saturday's sunset, he arose, which is why we say that he arose on the third day rather than after the third day.

There are two other pieces in in which it is easy to become confused. One of those is the relationship between the Last Supper and the Passover meal, which I will postpone for another time, because that one is REALLY tricky. But the other one I'll mention now, because my brain slipped last night on this one (and an alert parishioner who counts was paying attention and caught me!) And that is the relationship between Lent and the reconciliation of those who had fallen into "notorious sin."

During the Ash Wednesday service, on page 265 of our Prayerbook, we read, "This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church."

From Ash Wednesday until the Maundy Thursday service, those caught in "notorious sins" were "separated from the body of the faithful." That is, they were not allowed communion. This excommunication from the table was intended as a penance for notorious sin -- intended to produce a deep regret about notorious sin, repentance to faithful living, and amendment of life. Following this Lenten penance, these excommunicants were "reconciled and restored to the fellowship of the Church." Their restoration was on Maundy Thursday -- and they were joyfully and ritually welcomed back into full participation expressed through the footwashing and Holy Communion rituals.

So in a very real and very powerful way, the experience of Lenten fasting, separation, and penance ended on Maundy Thursday. From that perspective, Lent came to it's climatic ended on Maundy Thursday, and the entire reconciled body of the faithful went hand in hand together into the full mystery of the Triduum -- the three days of the Passion, culminating in the Resurrection.

So it's very easy for certain priests ("Ahem," he said, somewhat red-faced), to become so excited about the "very real and powerful way" in which "the experience of Lenten fasting, separation, and penance" comes to its conclusion on Maundy Thursday -- and totally forget that Lent isn't technically over until sunset Saturday. In fact, it's even possible (oh say it isn't so!) for certain priests ("I'm STILL not mentioning any names," he said, whistling innocently and not making eye contact) to even express his joy about the Maundy Thursday celebration of reconciliation by even SAYING that the 40 days of fasting had come to their end.

Technically of course, such a priest (I'm STILL not mentioning any names) would be wrong. The 40 Days were not over. The three days of the Passion (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday), do not stand between Lent and Easter, but are the last three days of Lent. But even as I write this, it strikes me that the Church is so focused and excited about reconciliation and restoration, that we can't wait for the Resurrection itself for the reconciliation and restoration of those caught up "in notorious sins." Such a waiting would have it's own symbolic meaning and could make sense. But we don't want even notorious sinners to miss going through the Passion with us. We want them fully with us as we go through the three days of darkness. We want them fully with us, fully participant, and fully restored when that moment arrives during the Easter vigil -- when the Light suddenly returns and we all begin to shout, "Alleluia!"

The Lord be with you,