Great Lent Begins
The Forty Days
The two preceding Sundays, of the Last Judgment and of Forgiveness, together constitute – albeit in reverse order —a recapitulation of the whole range of sacred history, from its beginning-point, Adam in Paradise, to its end-point, the Second Coming of Christ, when all time and history are taken up into eternity. During the forty days that now follow, although this wider perspective is never forgotten, there is an increasing concentration upon the central moment in sacred history, upon the saving event of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, which makes possible man’s return to Paradise and inaugurates the End. Lent is, from this point of view, a journey with a precise direction; it is the journey to Pascha (Easter) The goal of our journey is concisely expressed in the closing prayer at the Liturgy of the Presanctified: ‘ . . . may we come uncondemned to worship at the Holy Resurrection’ . Throughout the forty days we are reminded that we are on the move, traveling on a path that leads straight to Golgotha and the Empty Tomb (K. Ware, The Lenten Triodion).
