Lenten Lunch Talks Series (4th March)

good afternoon everyone happy lent and uh welcome to our first talk in the series of lenten lunch talks and uh we hope that you will be fed spiritually someone was texting me last night to ask me uh what was on the menu and i said well it would be a spiritual talk in place of the the fasting that i hope that you will be undertaking during this whole season of lent so uh the priests of the parish have decided that we will be giving this series of talks in different languages and i'll be starting off the first two weeks of talks in english and my first stop of the day would be basically an introduction to this entire season of lent and how we can best optimize this season for our own spiritual growth and growth of virtue during this time so i've entitled this talk lent the springtime of renewal now it begs the question i think everyone knows what lent is all about but if you were to give a description often the description takes the form of certain things as to its nature its purpose and of course to its length and i'm going to give you a kind of a working definition that may help so what is lent well a working definition a simple working definition would be lent is the penitential season of approximately 40 days set aside by the church in order for the faithful to prepare for the celebration of the paschal mystery the lord's passion death and resurrection now that's a mouthful and it takes a while to perhaps to unpack everything in it but in a way we can summarize lent in these few characteristics that has been captured by the definition itself we understand that length of course takes on a more sobering mode mood rather than one which is celebratory in nature and so it's penitential and then we often hear about the 40 days and being part of the whole liturgical calendar and many of you certainly are not strangers to the liturgical calendar we are familiar with of course the most popular the most famous among them advent christmas land easter and of course ordinary time and so this time is set aside as preparatory just as advent is preparation for christmas we have land as preparation for easter in fact one could say that uh advent is is an attempt by the church to imitate the fast of land and so in the past before it was called advent it used to be called saint martin's fast so from the feast of saint martin right up to uh christmas day uh there will be 40 days so 40 days of advent fasting and we have 40 days of lantern fasting before easter so what's in the name itself now if you are only familiar with the the english terminology that is used for the season uh you may not be aware that the word lent is exclusively used by english speakers in english-speaking countries there is a name for it in the different languages i believe in tamil there's a reference to the season of penance in in chinese in mandarin it will be sushi the season of 4 10 days so it's basically 40 days all right and then you have uh speaking following the customer of the indonesians they call this period pasca pascal of course refers to easter so it's the time the period before easter so where does the word land comes come from for us english speakers it comes from an old anglo-saxon word langton uh which is an old way of spelling uh the word lengthen so in a way it is it is pronounced in in in the same way they're spelled differently so if you were to spell the word lengthen today it will appear as l-e-n-g-t-h-e-n but in the old days the word was spelt l-e-n-c-t-e-n and it was descriptive of the season uh as experience in the northern hemisphere so you have four seasons you have spring summer fall autumn and winter um and following the movement of the sun and therefore the lengthening and shortening of the days and the nights after the nativity of saint john the baptist in the middle of the year we see the seasons having an impact on the length of a day daytime where there is light and also of the nights the days will grow shorter and the nights will grow longer and after christmas or after the winter solstice we see a reversal of this so-called uh in fact this natural phenomena the nights will grow shorter and the days will grow longer the days will be lengthened so spring comes at the after winter so with the end of winter uh already you see a change in terms of the hours daytime hours and night time hours and this becomes more visible during the time of spring so the word lent actually comes from from that a description of how the day's light time is extended so it has come to in ancient times to be used as another uh synonym for spring so land is spring so if you've heard that before uh don't be too surprised why is there a connection between land and spring some would say easter seems to have a greater connection with spring but land itself we begin to see especially in the north the thawing of frozen ground the trees are coming to life and new life is already burgundy during this period but in latin the period of course is is this season is of course not called land uh it is again very descriptive uh it is named after the days before easter so 40 days before easter cuadra or the full name is cuadra sima and it's interesting to note that before the reform of the liturgical calendar in the year 1969 uh the church marked certain sundays uh on its onward march to easter easter was pinnacle the the ultimate festive celebration it is the celebration by which all other celebrations finds its meaning uh and it's in a way measured from easter the days leading to easter and the days leading away from easter and so prior to the reform of the liturgical calendar and this is still practice where the by the liturgy especially when it's celebrated in the extraordinary form uh you will have first of all uh 70 days before easter being called a septuagint sema which just literally translate as 70 days or 70 days before easter we celebrated that this year around three weeks ago three sundays ago and there are interesting customs connected to septuagisma for example the bearing of the in a very formal elaborate way the bearing of the word alleluia so it'd be written on a banner and then buried with candles and incensing and then there'll be a silencing of the singing of the alleluia until easter of course with the reform the calendar these particular periods prior to the start of the lenten season removed some would they cry and say you know we have lost a great deal of our custom but the reason for the reform is to pay greater emphasis to the entire integrity of the lantern season but it's interesting to note that how the church over the centuries has seen this preparation to easter in terms of waves just as a ripple uh you know you have one wave after another wave and then to start land ash wednesday may seem a little bit abrupt so the ancient mind would say that you know we need to have first of all a remote preparation which begins at septon jessema and then as we move forward into ash wednesday we have a more proximate preparation and finally we have the immediate preparation during holy week and finally the paschal tridem starting on the evening of 40 thursday right until the vigil so how do we get get to this number this magical number well there is there is a historical perspective to it plus later i will share with you the theological as well as the uh scriptural basis for the 40 days so at the council of nicaea in the year 325 and this is a significant council it is the first ecumenical council and it is from here that we have the at least the first edition of the niceno constantinopolitan creep the creed that we pray uh every sunday except during lent and easter we are encouraged to pray the apostles creed shorter ones so this is the longer creed it comes from from this period it's a significant council because it also established the the method of determining the feast of easter because different churches in ancient times due to the inability to make accurate calculations disagreed on the date of easter and so the date of easter how it would be fixed was determined at this particular council um part of the canons that emerged from the council was also to since it determined that the date of easter it also began to fix the period for the season of lent now it did not begin in the year triangle 25 the practice of lenten observance of penance uh was already had already been been observed in the church uh but as i had mentioned there were varying practices across the church in different dioceses different localities different countries and so it was fixed and determined that land would begin six sundays before easter until holy thursday and so this is how you get 40 days now the council also made made this uh ruling okay he says that some days are not what is prohibited on sundays are fasting penance acts of sorrows these are prohibited on sundays now so this creates another conundrum so you say if you calculate from six six sundays before holy thursday so six sundays before holy thursday this coming sunday the first sunday of lent is six sundays before holy thursday if you count every day including the sundays you get 40 days but then there is this other second canon which states that you're not supposed to fast on sundays so this so-called 40 days are connected to fasting there are 40 days of fasting 40 days of doing penance and then the next cannon says you're not supposed to fast on sundays so when you don't fast on sundays you have to minus off the so-called six sundays from the total of 40 days and what do you get you get 34 days all right so in the fifth century in wishing to restore this to its to that that that so-called that magical number 40 days uh good friday and holy saturday were also added to the fast now usually in the calculation of lent we will not include the tritium so sacred tritium will begin in the evening of holy thursday until the vigil so if you you can read some books and commentaries they would usually say sacred tritium is in a way a season by itself the shortest perhaps the most important in our liturgical calendar and so generally you don't include them because you needed to add additional days of fasting so good friday and holy saturday were added in that sense to to make up the days lacking for fasting so 34 plus 2 36 so you're still short of four so how do we work that out right we had to add more days and since you can't add more days after that will eat into easter and easter is the day of feasting the great feast you have to work backwards and so that's how we came up with practice of starting land and on ash wednesday so you've got ash wednesday thursday of ash wednesday friday after ash wednesday which is today and uh the saturday after ash wednesday so you have four more days so four plus 36 equals 40. there you have it you've got the magical number of 40 days of fasting now back this is ash wednesday it was felt that it's not just merely a question of adding on the days in order to make up 40 days of fasting it would also be a significant date or not a day of obligation what is obligatory would be the fasting and abstinence that's obligatory so most people confuse it and they think going to church on ash wednesday is an obligation it is that it is certainly edifying it's certainly most encouraged to begin your day with mass with holy communion with the imposition of ashes with confession right but it is a day of where we are obliged to fast and abstain a little bit about this next week when i talk about lenten practices but it's interesting to note that ash wednesday became connected with the entire season of lent in the practice of those candidates preparing for easter so the candidates preparing for easter belong to a certain group in ancient times and today it's called also in a very loose way broader sense the order of catechumens individuals journeying learning about the christian faith being prepared spiritually through its liturgy for the easter mysteries which is baptism confirmation and the eucharist so there was also another group of people called the order of penitence and both these groups were actually excluded from the larger congregation not only because they they were given a different category they were categorized in in a different group but also in terms of seating all right today we have this issue of social distancing in the church uh and then we're trying to move people here and there and of course you have places reserved for the elderly for the sick and things like that so it would be easier for community minister to give communion to them so we have things like that and then your some churches are what we call the crying room but in in ancient times there was an area within the church there was reserved for the order of cataclysms as well as the order of penitence they dressed differently and they also observed certain things the order of pentagons would have ashes placed on their heads and during the time of performing penance they were not supposed to to wash your head so it's can you just imagine that this shovel the shape can't do anything you obviously look like a like a beggar a homeless person right in church and so in those days you would not be mistaken for a homeless person look at you and you they will say that you are a penitent someone performing penance right and uh of course those who were not performing these kind of pencils the canonical penances as we would call them because they were reserved for the most grievous forms of sin uh develop a kind of an envy and that's ironic right we usually envis people of the because of their wealth their their looks and things like that but the early christians were envious of the order of penitence the penitents who dressed in this sort of way and had ashes placed on their head and so the church decided okay well if you are asking for for for some kind of you know external uh dressing or a tire or way of behaving that would align you to the order of penalties especially during the season of lent where all of us are called to do penance it's a penitential season well we will also impose the ashes thank god you don't have to keep the ashes on your head throughout the whole of length righty or the penitents of who belong to the other pendants could not wash their head yeah their hair okay they had to keep the ashes there and so basically you would look like someone one of those you know hindu rishis who who go to the to the uh their sacred river uh ganges usually near uh benares right where they will go and eventually get washed in the river which is not very clean itself okay so uh thank god for that we keep our ashes only on ash wednesday all right just a little trivia so lens actually if you were to calculate from ash wednesday until easter actually is 46 days right because if you were to add the two additional days of triumph it's 46 days but uh if you minus all six sundays well what do you get you get 40 days all right so that's how historically the church developed tradition of describing lent as 40 days but technically 40 days of doing penance or fasting so although it's today the church only prescribes the obligation for fasting and abstinence fasting on only two days and abstinence on two days which is ash wednesday and good friday all fridays of lent are days of abstinence but then every day except sundays can also be days where you can perform penances prayers arms giving and fasting right so i know a lot of people especially certain communities part of their custom and the tradition would be to to even fast and abstain uh in some of the the uh the cloistered communities like our carmelite sisters still follow a way of fasting which is more akin to that of the of the old calendar all right so they have their days of fasting which are much longer and much more severe than what we would practice ourselves so where did the 40 days come from so throughout the entire throughout scriptures especially in the old testament and then we begin to see how jesus is indeed the fulfillment of the of the law and the prophets of the old testament scriptures uh we first encountered the 40 days and 40 nights in the flood so the great flood lasted for 40 days and 40 nights first of all it rained for 40 days and 40 nights and then the flood lasted for another 40 days and 40 nights so already we begin to see a certain illusion here right water death destruction and what is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of that when we think of water it's not just holy water but holy water points to baptism our baptism so from death from destruction comes new life from sin god destroyed the world with a flood in order god was actually destroying sin in order to bring about a revitalizing of humanity a renewal of humanity in fact uh the commandments given to to to noah seems uh corresponds to to the commandments given to adam but with certain tweets to it there are certain changes to it so it is as if that after the flood there was again a new creation so all this points to the sacrament of baptism then we have the story of jonah a popular story among children and i would say a popular story also among adults and in fact jonah is the only prophet that is quoted mentioned by name by jesus himself you know when he spoke of the sign of jonah so most of us remember how jonah was swallowed up by the big fish in the new testament it is described as a big whale the belly of the whale for three days three nights but actually the the the sign of jonah extends beyond just the imagery of jonah being swallowed by the fish the sign of jonah also points to the message of jonah he was sent by god to the nineveh ninevites to the city of nineveh which is the capital of assyria the arch enemy of israel all right people have often speculated that that jonah didn't want to go because he didn't want to to preach to his enemies all right or he could have been fearful that his enemies will put him to death if you want to preach the message of repentance to them but actually the real reason is written in the book of jonah itself uh jonah complains actually about god's mercy in the book of jonah and he says that you know god i i know you you are most compassionate merciful then if i were to preach to these people this this good for nothing people my enemies the enemies of my people they will repent and you too will repent of your wrath and you will instead show mercy to them and because you will show mercy to them he will not listen to me or any of the other prophets in the future so he was complaining about the futility of his preaching because it would actually end up you know the assyrians being in a worse off position all right so quite an interesting reasoning there but again what can we derive from the story repentance 40 days of repentance that even the most hardened sinner uh is capable of repenting but if if you know the reason why jonah was reluctant to preach that too could be a message for lent that is that at the end of the day uh god's mercy is not something futile of in vain all right his mercy is poured upon us during this whole entire season of land the most moses and the israelites next story wandered in the desert for 40 years again 40 was a period of time of testing uh one generation had to die off before the next generation could be raised up then elijah fasted and prayed on horup for 40 days then moses also by the way fasted 40 days 40 nights while he was on mount sinai before he received the the decal the ten commandments okay but then all of this coins all of these events pre-figured the the event that launched jesus jesus ministry which is uh fasting 40 days 40 nights in the desert in preparation for his public ministry and it was a time when he was also tempted so there is a connection there right uh if if we are insulated from temptation insulated from from uh proclivity to sin all right then penance will have no value penance has value because precisely because we are doing penance is we wish to discipline ourselves to to face uh the devil and all his elders and his temptations so from from these 40 days we can derive the 2-4 theme of lent all right firstly it is penance penance calling us to conversion to repentance and of course baptism what awaits us easter the ultimate the the focus of the celebration of easter for jesus is of course his conquests his triumph of the death and sin by his resurrection but for the church we see our victory over sin and death through our baptism so baptism is how we begin to appropriate the graces and the victory of easter in our lives and so let prepares us through penances for those who are preparing to be baptized to be received into the church for their baptism and for us we already have been baptized for us to renew our baptismal promises okay so some questions that i would like to leave with you as we come to the end of this short talk and uh these questions i hope that you will take a few and will kind of provide uh some guidance into how you can see transformation change repentance in your life throughout this whole period and i would like to tie it in with the the etymology of the word lent at least in english langton all right uh we live in a culture that thrives on immediate gratification we want instant this instant that immediateness and uh we get impatient we get annoyed angry when things don't go away immediately when god doesn't answer our prayers immediately lent is a way of lengthening things all right and so uh rather than and then allowing ourselves to be consumed by a culture that pushes for immediate results immediate gratification let our lantern fast our land and penance and our london practice help us to see god's light lengthening in our lives the night is growing shorter the daytime is growing longer let the light of christ be lengthened in our lives during the season of lent here are some questions perhaps for your own personal reflection and contemplation so what are we doing to grow in patients so you may be fasting staining for meat every friday going vegan uh plant-based today recording plant-based uh you may be doing extra things going by the way of the cross but has it made you any less impatient have you how do you respond to the lengthening of your experiences to the lengthening of maybe the the gospel readings that's a real tester as we especially when we uh we have candidates for baptism we choose year a lectionary gospel readings okay the the the readings are taken from year a and they are lengthy and then as we enter in the holy week the gospel passion readings lengthen right and sometimes we get a little bit annoyed we hope that the priest will choose the shorter version of it we get impatient more easily i think during this period of time especially when we're fasting but what are we doing to grow in patience what are we doing to deepen our prayer lives not just merely in adding on to the number of prayers but rather allowing prayer to seep in our lives and our souls are like desert the wilderness crying out to god for his due for his heavenly dudes due of his grace so how do we deepen our prayer lives what are we doing to enrich our reading of scripture so good practice would be if you have the opportunity to attend daily mass and if you even if you're not able to do that follow the daily readings and especially the gospel readings and to spend time because each of the gospel readings actually provide us with beautiful themes for lent addressing different aspects of it what are we doing to enhance our love for god we often profess that we love god and yet god is often alas in terms of our priority how do we prioritize god in our lives in our schedule what are we doing to reign in our passion so self-denial all right today self-denial often gets a bad rap uh modification where we are where we deny our flesh of the pleasures sometimes we think that this is something medieval okay immediately comes to mind you know flogging yourself wearing a hair shirt tying chains around your your your ties so to make yourself uncomfortable but denying yourself of things that you generally enjoy most people think that you know uh the more you deny yourself then it's better if god is a a sadist therefore he loves to see us suffer but actually when we reign in our passions we become freer freer to love god and to love our neighbor and finally what are we doing to strengthen our compassion sorry there's a typo there so what are we doing to strengthen our compassion the church often has this thing called the lantern campaign we we often think okay this is time to keep some money and give to the poor but to look around this to see what's going on to see the people that we often ignore the small people the tiny people the people on the periphery of our vision how do we begin to see each and every one of them as important let us not be like a rich man and lazarus feasting enjoying ourselves and yet blind and indifferent to those who are suffering around us how can we strengthen that so how can we lengthen our spiritual lives so as we come to the end of today's talk let us heed the words of the prophet joel which we heard on ash wednesday right it comes from the first reading and it's a reminder that at the end of the day lent is not involves many external practices highest practices but the importance of these pious practices is to lead eventually to a conversion of heart so the prophet joel exhorts this let your hearts be broken not your garments torn turn to the lord your god again for his old tenderness and compassion wishing all of you a blessed land and hope to see you next week you

Channel: Holy Family Kajang

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Id: Ts4Fb31PYF0

Length: 35min 5sec (2105 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 03 2022