Lent has come early this year ― and that means Mardi Gras arrived before Valentine’s Day. It seems to have caught retailers unawares, as the red hearts swept onto the shelves right after the Christmas décor was bundled away. In a proper year, where the holidays march in at a genteel pace, such discord would never arise. Christmas would give way to New Year’s horns, confetti and champagne flutes, then the tokens of love and romance, and finally, the purple, gold and green beads and masks would make a brief but brilliant debut.
But not this year. This year, we have all been caught by surprise. Scarcely were we done with Super Bowl 50, than we faced down Fat Tuesday; in fact, a regular trifecta of observances: Super Bowl, Chinese New Year (Monkey), and then Mardi Gras and the glittering conclusion of Carnival.
Because Mardi Gras, despite the hype of the marketplace, is truly only one day in the year, and at midnight its time is up. When the clock strikes the last, twelfth “bong”, it is Ash Wednesday. The season of Lent is come.
Lent has never been popular. It is forty days of denial of self, desires and personal ambition. It is forty days of introspection and meditation. It is forty days of preparing to live life on a higher plane of existence. None of these concepts is going to be popular, certainly not for forty days, all day every day. It is far easier to have a one-day holiday that annually requires more and more material goods for its observance. One can keep the fun and excitement going for months that way.
Lent is not about fun, or excitement. Lent is about taking a very long look at where one is with one’s life journey, and reassessing the map one is using. Lent serves to remind those who try to observe it that we are all just travelers here, passing through one station after another. Lent reminds us that it is wise to be packed and vigilant, ticket at the ready. One never knows when one is leaving.
That is why the colors of Lent are gray and then purple, as the ashes of repentance give way to the violet of patience. Lent calls us to be watchful and to stay the course, to strive for a greater life. Lent call us to deny obvious satisfactions and dare to embrace renewed desire for spiritual growth.