Emendemus in Melius

It is Lent once again. The pre-Easter penitential season starts somewhat late this year, one of the consequences of the variability of the date of Easter, which is one of the traditional features of the Christian calendar that has not yet been destroyed by modernity!

While the Council of Nicea in 325 established a 40-day period of pre-Easter fasting for the universal Church, this observance took on various forms in different localities, and it was a while before our Roman Lent reached its current length and form. Ash Wednesday was a relative latecomer to the Lenten calendar, when a concern to have exactly 40 days of fast (excluding Sundays) led to front-loading the season with an extra four days. While beginning Lent on the First Sunday (Quadragesima) might seem more liturgically traditional (and is still when Lent begins in Milan, which follows the non-Roman Ambrosian Rite), Ash Wednesday is without doubt one of the most popular and faithfully observed days in the entire Catholic calendar.

At some point, the Church began to impose ashes at the beginning of Lent on those performing public penance during Lent, who would later be reconciled to God and the Church on Holy Thursday. By the end of the First Millennium, the Order of Penitents had died out, replaced by the more modern form of individual Penance, but ashes had become so popular that everyone eventually wanted to receive them, as is still the case! The reformed post-conciliar Lent may have lost some of its zest, but Ash Wednesday has, if anything, grown in popularity

Ashes, obviously, are meant to serve as a reminder of human mortality, as well as a sign of sorrow for one’s sins and the desire for conversion. The first symbolism is reflected in the traditional formula used when imposing ashes: “Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The second is echoed throughout the season in the scriptural texts and liturgical chants and prayers that are employed. Among these is this traditional responsory for the former Second Nocturn at Matins on the First Sunday of Lent, which begins, Emendemus in melius (Let us change for the better).

Amendment of life is, inherently, a lifelong task, which we traditionally focus on with special intensity in this Lenten season. Different times and circumstances, the life transitions we experience, and the fluctuating currents of the secular world all offer context for our Lenten penance, our amendment for better.

So what about this year?

Before his recent hospitalization, Pope Francis issued his annual Lenten Message, entitled (in the spirit of this Jubilee Year), Let us journey together in hope. The theme of journey is especially salient right now. In his message, Pope Francis recalled, our brothers and sisters who in our own day are fleeing situations of misery and violence in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones. What Pope Francis calls A first call to conversion thus comes from the realization that all of us are pilgrims in this life; each of us is invited to stop and ask how our lives reflect this fact. Am I really on a journey, or am I standing still, not moving, either immobilized by fear and hopelessness or reluctant to move out of my comfort zone? Am I seeking ways to leave behind the occasions of sin and situations that degrade my dignity? Then, connecting with the worldwide migration crisis, which is taking such a terrible turn on our own country right now and so especially impinges upon our consciousness and on our conscience, the Pope adds: It would be a good Lenten exercise for us to compare our daily life with that of some migrant or foreigner, to learn how to sympathize with their experiences and in this way discover what God is asking of us so that we can better advance on our journey to the house of the Father. This would be a good “examination of conscience” for all of us wayfarers.