The annual season of Lent always lasts 40 days and is a time of healthy penance and renewal in preparation for the celebration of Holy Easter (April 9).
The number "40" is very significant. Tradition has it that this number refers to the 40 weeks of a child's growth in the womb from conception to birth. It is evident, then, that the number 40 suggests a new birth, a regeneration, a new presence, an initiative that is not a repetition but signifies a new beginning.
This is evident from the forty years spent in the wilderness by the Hebrew people released from their long exile in Egypt. In fact, during those forty years, the whole generation of slavery, which had come out of Egypt, perished in the desert; none of them entered the promised land, not even Moses, to whom the Lord granted a view of it from a distance from a high mountain beyond the Jordan, but he was not allowed to enter.
To lead the people, God placed a young man named Joshua, who represented the new generation born in the desert, who had not known Egypt. Indeed, although reduced to slavery, the Hebrews largely absorbed the dominant pagan and materialistic culture of Egypt. Indeed, it is said that it was easier for God to bring his people out of the land of Egypt than to extract Egypt from the hearts of his people.
During the forty years, God renewed and restored his covenant with his people, and their descendants, sealed with the blood zi sacrificed animals. God proclaimed, "I will take you as my people and become your God" (Ex 6:7). That animal blood was only a foreshadowing of the blood of Jesus, the Lamb Immolated on the cross, whose blood was shed for our sins. That is why we are now reconciled to the Father and form one with him through Jesus, who in Mary's womb, may remaining God, became our brother, taking on our human nature. Christ Jesus, the new Moses, proclaimed by his bloody sacrifice on the cross "a new and everlasting covenant" (Lk 22:20 and Eucharistic Prayer) sealed no longer with the blood of animals but by his blood. Jesus, in fact, is the Immaculate Lamb immolated for the reconciliation between God and all humanity.
The number "40" also appears at the beginning of the Gospel. Jesus, before beginning his life publicly with the baptism in the Jordan, he withdrew into the wilderness. Indeed, the evangelist St. Luke tells us that "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, departed from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, for 40 days tempted by the devil" (Luke 4:1-2). Indeed, the letter to the Hebrews reveals that Jesus, "in the days of his earthly life offered prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears…though he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered" (Heb. 5:7-8)!
Jesus defeated the devil who wanted to induce him to disobey God. After this victory, Jesus begins his public ministry, and the first encounter is precisely with Satan in the possessed people he meets among the crowds. When he encounters Jesus, Satan immediately reacts with both verbal and physical violence, he becomes almost aggressive, but he has no power over Jesus and it only takes one word of command from Jesus to get him out of the possessed and give them the freedom that he had come to bring to the whole world and to every individual who comes into this world.
The 40 days of Lent are precisely for us to learn to obey with sincere prayer and genuine penance. Every true Christian knows that since his baptism he is called to renounce Satan and all his devilry so as not to be his slave. The Lord Jesus warns us, "Beware that no one deceives you!" (Mt 24:4) Jesus clearly tells us that Satan is a liar and murderer from the beginning, a liar, relegated to hell for all eternity. (Cf. Jn. 8:44) But he is jealous of us and does everything to steal the hope we have in Christ Jesus as children of God. Just as he did with Adam and Eve, so also with us he wants to destroy in any way our relationship of love and trust with God our Father. With Satan you don't mess around and with the sin of pride you don't go to heaven!
Jesus wants us to be humble in heart so that we may enter the Kingdom of Heaven with him (cf. Mt. 11:29-30), but he openly distanced himself from the proud and hypocrites, who make themselves out to be good and virtuous in appearance but in reality are not because they have never known Jesus personally and never met him in the poor and needy.
Just as God let the people of slavery perish in the wilderness by letting them wander for forty years, allowing a new generation to continue the journey to the Promised Land, so he asks from us, who are now his people, to rediscover our baptism and be born again to new life.
The late Pope Benedict XVI, left us a posthumous book entitled, "God is always new." In Jesus Christ, God the Father calls us to perpetual rebirth and therefore asks us to Make clear, courageous and consistent choices. These 40 days of grace and mercy are an opportunity and a gift for us to rediscover our baptismal promises, renouncing sin and clearly affirming our faith in Jesus Christ and our willingness to live in obedience to the Gospel and the ministers the Holy Spirit has appointed to our Holy Catholic Church.
The great challenge is obedience to the commandment of love: 'love one another' For by this all will know that you are my disciples" (Jn. 13:34-35). St. John reminds us again, "He who says he loves God but does not love his neighbor who is near him is a liar and there is no life in him, for whoever hates his brother is murderous and life Eternal does not dwell in him." (Jn. 3:15).
Fr. Peter P. Polo, cs
