Lent #1: Ash Wednesday.

We share in his sufferings…

(Romans 8:17)

During the 40 days of lent, the church shares in the sufferings of Christ. Traditionally, our Lenten participation in Christ's sufferings include fasting, repentance, and almsgiving (a bible word for charity).

We get the forty days from Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness where “he fasted forty days and forty nights” (Mt 4:2). Calculating back 40 days from Easter gets us to Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of Lent. Yet, that’s not exactly how it works. I just counted back 40 days from Easter and I landed on Tuesday, March 3; not, Ash Wednesday, February 26. How come? Well, it has to do with Sunday. You can’t count Sunday, because Sunday is never, not even during Lent, a sad day. Sunday is always and already a feast day because that’s the day we celebrate Christ’s resurrection. Every Sunday is a little Easter. That’s why we tend to worship on Sunday morning. So, let me try it again not counting Sundays. That works. Not counting the six Sundays of Lent, I landed squarely on Ash Wednesday.

Yet still, Ash Wednesday keeps jumping around. Ash Wednesday came in March last year and next year it comes on February 17. Why won’t it stay put? That’s because Easter jumps around. It has to do with the first Sunday following the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. Creation is in on it. Everything is fixed according to where Easter lands. I like that. You can’t pin God down. The calendar can’t hold him. God remains wild and free. All we can do is believe and follow and set our lives accordingly.