Anne Lastman
Sitting in my parish church (Perth Cathedral) for about 45 minutes before noon Lenten Mass, I valued the peace of the surrounds. The silence. Not to pray this time but just sit. I just wanted to stay with the Lord. At times I could hear someone coming in and staying a little while and then leaving. But I just wanted to be sitting there in the quiet and be with Him.
Sitting throughout this (I can’t kneel-knee issues) I began thinking about Lent. Every year we come to this time. To the beginning of this journey of forty days which are days different from normal. Fasting, praying, Mass, almsgiving, and other personal sacrifices. But why 40 days? Why not 37, 52, 67, etc. days why 40 days.
Knowing that numbers have a meaning in biblical writings (Gematria) which is the assignment of a numerical value to a word, phrase, I found that the number forty appears in scriptures 150 times so indeed it must mean something important. We also know that a biblical generation is thought to be forty years, so it continues to be cited, and so, I began to think about the number forty.
Lent is a journey. It’s not a short time, or marathon, leading to another time, or a different short time to pray in a different way. Each Lent, without break, is the continuation of a journey (like a relay) which started at the very beginning of history when a man and a woman were expelled from their garden home (Eden) which was then shut down firmly and once shut down, the man and the woman had to set out on a journey and so began The journey to find their way back to their own home. Lent is the start of the leaving of their home and returning back to the garden, via another garden, Gethsemane. Lent is a long journey. It’s a journey in which each generation and time in that generation walk forward towards that original home, original garden. Each generation continuing the journey without a break and then handing over their mandate to continue to the next generation. From the past, to present and passing on to future (anamnesis) a past event made present real and continuous. Without a break in the sequence.
Going back to the numerical 40, could this be the way by which the return to the garden would take? There are many examples of this, though in this essay I’ll use just several as examples.
Forty days and forty nights a flood to save the human family, and a covenant (covenant-rainbow). Moses on Mt Sinai for forty days and forty nights to receive the tablets of the law. Moses and Israelites wandering through the desert for forty years. Forty years Manna from heaven to sustain the Israelites. Then acting on behalf of the Israelites Moses ascends the mount to hear the terms of the new covenant of God with his people. Here God promises to make Israel his people and he would be their God and to make Israel a holy people a people from where priests will come and spread his blessing to all the nations.
The first covenant was Adam and Eve. A covenant of life (fertility-be fruitful and multiply) The second covenant a covenant with Noah and promise never to destroy human beings again with flooding. (rainbow).
The third covenant a familial covenant with Abraham brought out from pagan nation (Ur of the Chaldees-Iraq today) he was chosen to be God’s emissary on earth. To continue God’s relationship with his creation.
The fourth covenant with Moses (a Tribal covenant) and the promise to make them his people then a covenant with David, a kingdom, to be followed by the universal covenant with Jesus and perhaps I would say the seventh covenant a Covenant with the Sabath, a day of holiness of the Lord. Keep Holy the Sabbath. This is a universal unchangeable covenant. Each covenant builds one upon the other, but the Sabbath covenant has reached the pinnacle of promises between man and God. This covenant, unlike the others, was kept because Jesus unlike the other human representatives did not fail. Jesus the God Man came and made a covenant with his father that would not be broken. He would not fail.
Forty days continues throughout all scripture, all Old Testament, and enters the New Testament. Forty days from birth of Jesus to Presentation in the temple. Forty days for Mary’s purification after the birth of her son. Leviticus states that a mother is thought unclean for forty days after birth of a son. Forty weeks for human gestation.
Jesus’ forty days in desert before he starts his ministry. Forty days from Transfiguration to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. forty days during lent. Forty days from Resurrection to Ascension, during which time Jesus walked with his disciples, spoke with them of work to be done, spoke to them about himself and taught them what he needed to teach them and then in ten days he left them in order to send the Holy Spirit (I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you Jn: 18-24) to help them to remember who he was and what he had told them and be with them through his (Holy Spirit’s) own epoch. To complete, confirm and speak the words that Jesus had spoken and done.
So, the number forty has many special meanings in scriptures and whenever this figure is present, we know that a special moment is to be encountered with God. During this time something new occurs. The figure forty represents a newness, a springtime, a rebirth, indeed from Eden to Gethsemane from the promise of death (Eden) to promise of life (Gethsemane) From the shutting of the doorway (gates) into Eden and after forty hours nighttime (tomb and death) bursting open that door (gate) of death (tomb) which the enemy had had bolted now exultingly burst wide open.
The preparation for easter, is like Moses’s preparation to ascend the mountain and speak to their God. To the reparation by Jesus to face what was to come. To the preparation of the apostles Peter James and John (main apostles) by showing them who he really was and not to be discouraged or afraid with what they would see in the following days, and then after Resurrection forty days for the preparation of them for his leaving them and return to his father’s house but assured them that he would send someone else to help them.
Lent is for all of us. His teaching us, his preparation of us, his showing us who he really is. This chain of events including past generations, present and future generations, a continuation of the journey forward to meet the one who would enter Gethsemane (suffering) and continue the journey after him. The pre and post resurrection time was a time of renewal and learning as we prepare and learn that each new Lent, we continue what God started that time long ago. A complete journey and promise that He, through another (His son) would lead his people and bring them back to the garden, Edenic home which he had prepared for them. The Son, in his humanity would not fail, as other messengers had done, he would ensure that the journey to the beginning would continue until the end of time, because he had promised to re-open those gates which had been shut. and protected against further entry, by flaming swords. No entry could occur until the one and only Son of the most high had opened that door/gate never to be shut again.
To teach the Shemah Israel took forty years (like forgiveness 77×7 endless) the Shemah Israel Jewish prayer centerpiece of a Jewish person’s life. A morning and evening prayer and a prayer said by the dying person or on his behalf.” Hear O Israel the Lord is our God” and the beatitudes are the two teachings which all must learn before the remaining “forty days” and “ forty nights” come to pass. For each of us.
As we sit and meditate on Lent it becomes so easy and beautiful to see that the Lent, we observe is a continuation of the past Lent and all the past Lents and at the end of our Lent we hand over to the next generation the mandate to continue it and then they are to pass it on further. Like the blessed Eucharist an event past, present and continuous, (anamnesis) and the Passover meal also an unbroken meal throughout known generations. Even past present and continuous we also continue the journey and beliefs and actions which we have had handed to us for our time and with love and forgiveness we pass these on for others to continue. When we receive the Lenen baton (beginning of Lent) we sit with the Lord not saying much but keeping company with him for a while. Lent gives us the same opportunity to prepare to sit with him in the New Garden as he prepares to open the gates for those who would enter.
