Lent is here

Yesterday, which was Ash Wednesday in Christendom, was the first day of Lent, a 40-day prayer and fasting season for Christians. It climaxes with Easter Sunday, which holds on April 5. Generally, Sundays in Lent are not counted in the 40 days because each Sunday represents a “mini-Easter” as the austere spirit of Lent prepares […]

Yesterday, which was Ash Wednesday in Christendom, was the first day of Lent, a 40-day prayer and fasting season for Christians. It climaxes with Easter Sunday, which holds on April 5. Generally, Sundays in Lent are not counted in the 40 days because each Sunday represents a “mini-Easter” as the austere spirit of Lent prepares Christians for the commemoration of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The practice of sprinkling ashes on the foreheads in the shape of a cross on Ash Wednesday is in fulfilment of the Bibilical phrase: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”It is a reminder to all adherents of the inevitability of human mortality that earthly life is temporary with the fleeting nature of life, and the necessity of humility.

The ashes also signify the readiness of the recipient to embark on the 40-day spiritual exercise which rests on four pillars – fasting, prayers, abstinence and alms giving. Indeed, Lent signifies adherents’ willingness to deprive themselves and reach out to those who are most in need.

The season of abstinence also helps Christians to shed bad habits while embracing self-love towards purifying themselves into a much more single-minded response to the divine call and will. It reminds them to prepare towards offering themselves to be broken up, body and soul, and transformed by God’s merciful love, in fact towards state of being made holy.

This is because Lent has become a time of preparation, an opportunity for deeper relationship with God through personal reflection which prepares believers’ hearts and minds for Good Friday and Easter. So, essentially, the Lenten season prepares the believer for Easter through constant prayer, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, simple living, and self-denial.

The Lenten began centuries after the death of Christ and is believed to have been inspired by his 40 days fasting and prayers in the wilderness. The earliest mention of a 40-day Lent was in the Canons of Nicaea in 325 AD when early Christians observed it as a way to prepare for Easter.

The period is filled with services, meditations, studies, teachings, retreats and other forms of rejuvenating gatherings and programmes which delves into Holy Week activities.

As Nigerian Christians join the rest of the world in observing the Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lenten season, we at Daily Trust felicitate with them. We congratulate the faithful for witnessing another season.

We, therefore, urge them to live faithfully and peacefully with their neighbours including people of other faiths, sharing and extending hands of love to them during this period. They should exhibit the virtues of the season in their day-to-day activities.

It is instructive that Ramadan and Lent began on the same day this year, which provides opportunities for Christians and Muslims to embrace the moment as a shared season of prayer, fasting, and soul-searching. This rare convergence should be a shared sacred moment to reflect and walk together in faith as brothers and sisters toward God, the ever “Merciful and Compassionate.”

The season also reminds us to reflect on the sacred texts of both Christian and Muslim traditions, which calls all to peace: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ (Matthew 5:9) and God ‘invites all to the Home of Peace’ (Qur’an 10:25).

Therefore, the fasting and prayer season should open the eyes of all participants to the suffering around us and enlarge our compassion towards our neighbours especially the poor and the forgotten as this is the ultimate proof of the love of God. This should not only become personal spiritual journeys but also as collective commitments to uplift the most vulnerable.

We urge that through the prayers of this season, Christians should deepen their knowledge and our love of God, to examine their hearts and lives, and to refocus their gaze on Jesus and his love as they recommit to a life of service and sacrifices.

Specifically, we admonish all Christians in positions of authority and those who can afford to imbibe the values of adding value to human existence by actively reaching out to families and neighbours who are going through hard times. After all, this is the only way to imitate God through the promotion of the good of one and all.

Daily Trust admits that this year’s Lent is no doubt coming at another very auspicious time that many Nigerians are frustrated, and some even angry as they battle the challenges of insecurity, including economic, religious and ethnic issues. Yet, we implore that they continue to live in total submission to the will of God.

We urge them to pray to God to give leadership at all levels the wisdom to do right to all people and for the citizens to discharge the duties of their citizenship with patriotic intent by holding the leaders accountable. Lent is another time to collectively pray for the unity of the country so that as we work together we can find solutions to all our problems. In these days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, it should be a source of strength for Christians to strive to take up their crosses and live true to their profession and teachings inherent in the faith.