Isn’t Lent the most beautiful time of the year? It’s cold, muddy, brown, dreary, barren… you can’t eat meat on Fridays, the tone is “sad” in church…. Or is it? I LOVE Lent. I love it. The sacrifice, the barrenness, the dryness, the symbolism… oh the symbolism…. Followed by the stark contrast of Easter day. There’s nothing else in the world like it. And I’m so grateful for the Church’s traditions and rituals so that I may experience fully the death of my sins to a taste of the fulfillment of my greatest of hopes: to be in that constant state of joy, peace, and love… to be with God in heaven one day.
It’s been a long-standing tradition of the Church, and for our church as well to “bury” the Alleluia on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. The purpose as with all visuals of our faith is to draw us deeper into the reality taking place. Sometimes the absence of something beautiful, so beautiful as an Alleluia (or a piece of cake….), is meant to intensify the desire in our hearts for it or redirect our unclean heart to its true purpose. Our Gospel today gives beautiful imagery of this. The “unclean” leper, void of relationships, health, and normalcy makes his reproach of faith to Jesus. He lays it all out there, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Mark goes on to say that Jesus was moved with pity… “I do will it. Be made clean,” He says. During Lent, we’re given that same opportunity to die to the things that make our hearts not as they should be… whatever that means for us… and to rest assured that any act of faith on our part, surly moves the heart of Jesus in his mercy and goodness…. So much so that he died for it, and redeemed in through resurrection.
So welcome the dryness, emptiness and perhaps ugliness of the Lenten season…. Relish in it… LOVE IT! Take part in all the traditions and symbolism, including burying this bulletin cover. Know that at the end of the day, the discomfort is only temporary, but the new life from it is one step closer to eternity in paradise… now isn’t that something beautiful, indeed. Happy Lent! ~Sara
