Lent is an important time in the church calendar, especially because it helps prepare us for Easter. As such, I wanted to take a moment to pause, as Jesus did in the wilderness, to talk about the season.
It turns out that The Book of Common Prayer gives us a great understand of Lent, and it does so right there at the beginning of the season on Ash Wednesday.
It is in that liturgy on BCP 264-265 that we hear of two things about the history of Lent.
- It was once a time where those who committed "notorious sins" were "restored to the fellowship of the Church."
- It was a time of preparation for those who would be Baptized at Easter.
Both of these things are important to remember. By making Lent about the whole church, not just the particularly notorious sinners, we are reminded that we are all sinners who are restored by Jesus' death in Holy Week and Resurrection at Easter.
We are also reminded that the Easter faith is what we are baptized into. We die to sin and rise to new life in Jesus, as Paul tells us in Romans 6:11. Again, Lent prepares us for the coming of Easter. In fact, the Easter Vigil is still one of the most appropriate times to be Baptized.
The history of Lent tells us what it is still about. That is why we remind ourselves of that history every year right from the start of the season.