Well, Lent is finally here!
Six weeks of fasting, praying, reverence, contemplation and sacrifice as we await the pinnacle of the liturgical year, Easter.
The Christian season of Lent is the most important and yet probably least celebrated of all.
On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, all of the blessed palm leaves from Palm Sunday of the previous year are gathered and burned. Then the ashes are applied to the forehead in the shape of a cross in the Jewish tradition of covering the head with ashes to show repentance.
The remainder of the season is pretty uneventful until Passion Week.
Passion Week begins with Palm Sunday to celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem on the week of his arrest and crucifixion. The crowds welcomed Jesus into the city by laying palm leaves on the road that lead into the city.
There is also Holy Thursday. This is the day on which the Last Supper occurred. It is also the day of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas Iscariot, his arrest and his conviction.
Then there is Good Friday, the second most important day in the Liturgical year: Jesus’ sentencing and crucifixion.
The same crowd that had honored him had now called for his execution. And they got what they wanted.
Jesus was scourged, a Roman method of discipline where the condemned is beaten with a flail that has small barbell-shaped pieces of iron and broken pottery shards fixed to the end of each strand. He was slapped, kicked, and punched as well, and they even pulled the beard from his face with their bare hands.
Subsequently, he was made to carry the cross on which he would be crucified up hill to the place of execution. They placed one nail at the base of each hand and one through both feet. He was then raised to a vertical position and left to asphyxiate.
There was an earthquake. The noonday sky became black as night.
Many hours later a Roman centurion thrust a spear between the fifth and sixth rib into the heart.
He was removed from the cross. The body was prepared hastily, as it was now the Sabbath day, and placed in a borrowed tomb.
The tomb was sealed and a Roman guard was posted there to stand watch.
Now for the most important of all days throughout all history, the Resurrection.
Three days later, as the Jews measure days, Jesus Christ by his own power rose from the dead.
This was all done so that man might have the personal relationship with God that he intended us to have with him.
God left the splendor of heaven, assumed a human body, lived in absolute poverty and endured the most gruesome death imaginable to show us that he loved us and wanted us to know him as much as he knew us.
We can restore that relationship with God by believing that the things which I have told you were all done so that our sins could be forgiven and asking for that forgiveness.
This is the beauty and romance of season of Lent.

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