What are the origins of Lent? What was its purpose and what is the reason for prohibition of meat on Friday?
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What are the origins of Lent? What was its purpose and what is the reason for prohibition of meat on Friday?
Lent is the approximately 40 days (six weeks) prior to Easter that most Christian faiths around the world observe an intensified time of prayer, repentance and self-denial in preparation for the celebration of Easter. It technically begins on Ash Wednesday (February 18 this year). The period of time is actually designed to coincide with the 40 days of fasting that Jesus endured in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry just prior to His temptations by Satan. Its purpose is to bring a heightened focus on the life of Christ and the things He suffered on our behalf. It is thought that a coming alongside Christ to share in His sufferings will make the believer closer to Him and more aware of what He did for us. As such, there have been many prohibitions from many foods observed over the centuries. As far as the abstinence from meat, the idea from a Catholic point of view is that Jesus Christ gave up His own body, His own flesh, for me and for you. He went through the pain of that self-sacrifice, completely mindful of God the Father. When I go through the incredibly minor act of abstaining from meat on Fridays, it is just one tiny act of self-sacrifice that points me back to His incredible self-sacrifice, when God loved me so much that He gave up His flesh in the most selfless act in history. Thinking about how often my physical body can lead me into sin and away from God, it is great to have a chance to let my body help lead me out of sin and toward God. That’s the essence of what Peter was saying when he wrote: Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God—1 Peter 4:1-2. Abstinence from meat is more than just “going without” during Lent or just a reminder that Christ offered His flesh for us on the cross. Abstinence is a form of prayer, a discipline. When we abstain from meat, we focus on Christ and on our souls, rather than on self and on our bodies. It is faith in action, placing our attention on Jesus and offering Him “our flesh” as a sacrifice, a vessel through which He can and does work. Ideally, of course, we shouldn’t need special efforts to remind us of the overwhelming reality of Christ’s sacrifice. As Isaiah wrote, 700 years before the event, But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all—Isaiah 53:5-6. And again, as we have talked about before, there is no need to replicate the punishment that Christ endured; instead, we are invited to celebrate the fact that, as Paul pointed out, The death he died, he died to sin once for all—Paul, Romans 6:10a, concurring with what the author of Hebrews says when he wrote, He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself—Hebrews 7:27b. When Christ on the cross said, It is finished—John 19:30a, he concluded, and totally completed, the greatest work of grace ever done, as the author of Hebrews again points out: [W]e have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all—Hebrews 10:10.
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