Great Lent

As the Orthodox Church approaches Great Lent, a quote from Fr. Alexander Schmemann from his aptly titled book, Great Lent:

"One can say without exaggeration that the whole life of the Church is one continous commemoration and rememberance. At the end of each service we refer to the saints 'whose memory we celebrate,' but behind all the memories, the Church is the rememberance of Christ. From a purely natural point of view, memory is an ambiguous faculty. Thus to remember someone means two things. On the one hand memory is much more than mere knowledge of the past. When I remember my late father, I see him; he is present in my memory not as a sum total of all that I know about him but in all his living reality. Yet, on the other hand, it is this very presence that makes me feel acutely that he is no longer here, that never again in this world and in this life shall I touch this hand which I so vividly see in my memory. Memory is thus the most wonderful and at the same time the most tragic of all human faculties, for nothing reveals better the broken nature of our life, the impossibility for man truly to keep, truly to possess anything in this world. Memory reveals to us that 'time and death reign on earth.' But it is precisely because of this uniquely human function of memory that Christianity is also centered on it, for it consists primarily in remembering one Man, one Event, one Night, in the depth and darkness of which we were told ' . . . do this in rememberance of me.' And lo, the miracle takes place! We remember Him and He is here - not as a nostalgic image of the past, not as a sad "never more," but with such intensity of presence that the Church can eternally repeat what the disciples said after Emmaus: ' . . . did not our hearts burn within us?' (Luke 24:32)."

As Schmemann goes on to say, Lent is, rightly understood, a preparation for the today of Pascha (Easter); a re-entrance of the Church into the event itself. It is not restricted merely to the realm of "ideas," but also includes, as part of its celebration, the joy and sadness of the event in its "living and concrete reality."

In the past I have always considered Lent in primarily negative language. Lent was a time of the year in which Christians willingly (ideally at least!) limited themselves as a symbolic rememberance of Christ's willing sacrifice and death. What am I going to give up for Lent this year? In recent years I have found myself reacting negatively against my incorrect perception of Lent, going as far as regarding Lent as being oppressive to God's design for humanity. In light of my original incorrect perception, perhaps this reaction, regretful and heretical as it may be, was inevitable. At any rate, this year, I pray that as a gift of the grace of God, I might limit my passions during the lenten season in order to focus upon my true heritage in God's eternal kingdom. In so doing I become the recipient of a gift greater than any I could ever imagine -- I receive the love of God and as a result, I can truly love others -- a love mingled both in sorrow and joy.