Angelus News | March 24, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 6

seems, and added its long fast somewhat
later in the year.
But the Romans didn’t tether their
observance to a literal reading of the
biblical text. They understood their
springtime fast to be not so much a
remembrance of Jesus’ time in the
desert — but rather an extended
preparation for the Church’s greatest
feast of all: Easter Sunday.
Easter was the day when Romans
preferred to baptize new converts. So
the fast was seen as a preparation for
Christian initiation as well.
Eventually, the Egyptians rearranged
their custom to match the Roman
observance — though some athletes
of prayer tried to keep both seasons,
now fused into a single, super-long
fast that stretched from mid-January
till Easter Sunday. Realizing that this
was unhealthy overkill, St. Athanasius
discouraged it.
Not until the Council of Nicaea in
A.D. 325 was the Roman fast, 40 days
leading up to Easter, made standard
for the whole Church.
Even then, fasting meant something
different from place to place. Some
churches urged their members to do
without meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and
wine. Some restricted the Christian
diet to bread, water, salt, and vegetables
(boiled or raw). Others reduced
the number of daily meals.
Gradually, however, Christians came
to a common understanding of the
season that encompassed both the
Egyptian and Roman customs.
Yes, Christians were fasting 40 days
in imitation of Jesus — whose own
fast was anticipated by those of Moses
and Elijah in the Old Testament (see
Exodus 34:28 and 1 Kings 19:18).
But Jesus’ fast, like everything in his
public ministry, was remote preparation
for something yet to come. It was
training for the suffering he would
endure in his saving passion. It was
remote preparation for his paschal
mystery.
So the Roman custom was following
the Gospel text just as faithfully as the
Egyptian custom had. But rather than
counting forward from Jesus’ birth and
baptism, the Romans looked backward
from his death and resurrection.
Some Christians, then, interpreted
the Lenten fast as a preparation for
death, the universal destiny. Over the
course of 40 days they would learn
from the Master how to be gradually
detached from the things of this
world — how to “lay down their lives”
(see John 15:13) and go willingly to
death, even if that meant martyrdom
preceded by torture. Indeed, the duration
of 40 days may have first been
established during a time of intense
persecution. Sts. Augustine and Jerome
claim that it was.
As the days of Lenten preparation
drew to a close, Christians would
learn also to “watch and pray”
because, as Jesus said, “the spirit is
willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark
14:38).
In the early centuries of Christianity,
then, Lent was all these things:
• An imitation of Christ (and Moses
and Elijah)
• A preparation for Easter
• A preparation for baptism
• A time of instruction in religious
doctrine and practice
• A time of repentance
• A time of disciplined preparation for
martyrdom
Over the centuries, the particulars
changed, the measurements varied,
the disciplines diversified. Christians
discovered countless ways to count to
40!
The meanings, moreover, multiplied
— or rather they accumulated in
layers. At root Lent was, and remains,
a time when Christians strive to walk
closely with Jesus, and this is done in
many time-honored ways. With him
we go forward from baptismal grace,
through temptation and deserts, to
dying, rising, and ultimate glory.
Mike Aquilina is a contributing editor
for Angelus and general editor of the
“Reclaiming Catholic History” series
for Ave Maria Press.
THE 40 DAYS
THAT WE NEED
“This charge I give you, before
Jesus the Bridegroom of
souls come in. ... A long notice
is allowed you; you have
forty days for repentance: you
have full opportunity both to
put off, and wash, and to put
on and enter. ... If anyone is
conscious of his wound, let
him take the salve; if any has
fallen, let him arise.”
— St. Cyril of
Jerusalem, A.D. 347
March 24, 2023 • ANGELUS • 41