COALED LIPS on fire
“ … live coal…has touched.. lips…“
Isaiah 6
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Nihil Obstat
Rev. Fr. Stephen Una
Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki
Assisting Chaplain, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Dodan Barracks, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria
Did you know that:
6 Days with a Sundae make One Lent Week?
I believe a lot of people would immediately grasp the import of the caption above and have an answer to the question but for you who does not, the intention is to get you to first try to figure it out yourself – to get your imagination piqued a bit – but knowing that where that takes you could be anywhere, I’d throw in a small word, in this special midweek edition of our blog, to be sure we are on the same page.
Refreshing Lent Sundaes
To further pique the imagination, if not figured it out yet, I’d ask that we explore some simple proportions calculations to get to the answer.
Lent = 40 Days
Lent = 6 Weeks
A Week = 7 Days
7 days/week × 6 Weeks/Lent = 42 days
Therefore, Lent = 42 and not 40 Days
If you are confused as to how the answer in our calculation contrasts with the known answer above, even though the calculation is correct, then this article is meant specifically for you and you NEED read on:
Why not? Jolly good meals on Lent Sundays!
At a point in my life, I was more than confused too. This was when I was new in my committed walk in the Christian faith, sometime in my mid twenties. I was quite exuberant, as expected and tried as much as I could, to carry out every bit of my christian obligation (as knowledge upon knowledge, which I have very much being in search of since then, unfolded to me) to the letter. I had an innate urgency, further spurred on by a homily I had heard from Very Rev Fr. Ehusani to live out every Christian bidding as if I’d never have another opportunity to do so and as if each and every moment were my last. So, when I got into the first of my very serious Lent season observation, looking back now, I should say that the inspiration and the strength could only have come from God. It wasn’t as if I were trying to cover up for past years of laxity in living, no. I was just doing my best in the moment, under divine inspiration and help, I suppose and since Lent, as we all know is a perfect opportunity to carry out christian duties to the full – as the church and her liturgy focuses squarely on the passion of our Lord and and has activities with powerful imagery on how we can totally hinge our entire life on things that point to the ultimate end of the christian vocation; salvation – I did my best to participate in every recommended activity. So, as to fasting, one of the three Cardinal practices of Lent of which prayer and almsgiving are the other two, I faced it squarely; abstaining in every way and doing full day, dry fast meaning my meal was not only once major one and timed to after six p.m., I would also not take water and must not drink even water once it was midnight. Looking back now, it was actually a gruelling activity but I didn’t feel so then, because the effect was made light as evidenced in an elevated spirituality that I felt in my being and which was actually testified to by others who would point out some difference in my general mien, attitude and character.
Holy Saturday Fast
However, Holy Saturday came upon me and I was stuck as to whether to fast on that day or not because to the the just nominal and just church going catholic with average tutelage, which I had been, lenten fast ends on Good Friday. The question of the gap – Holy Saturday’s status of fasting would usually not cross such minds, why, because they usually don’t participate heavily in Lenten activities, much less fast.
So, it took a quick research with another very new entrant into serious religiosity, a friend and then work colleague, Chris to find out.
Indeed the Bible says ‘my people perish for lack of knowledge’? Hosea 4:6. We had come to an agreement that there was a gross miscalculation as to the 40 Days of Lent touted by the church as the figures after repeated calculations, to our consternation weren’t adding up. We were so disappointed as to what was seeming to become a fraud by the church. Why would they know, yet make people believe an untruth. Couldn’t they have just come out and explained that it’s about forty days of Lent or something?
So, George Souza, another friend and a Catholic born colleague joins issues with us saying that there is actually a fast on Holy Saturday but we argue, that since our Lord’s passion was consummated on Good Friday on which he had said ‘it is finished’ and with the Bible stating that there is no need to call to mind the things of the past as old things have passed away and also, that if the son of man set you free, you are free indeed, all of which the shedding of his blood had done on Good Friday, it would not make sense to fast on Holy Saturday.
We didn’t put up all these arguments because we wanted to escape fasting on Holy Saturday. (I for one just had this hunch that it was not right not to fast on that day) but because we simply wanted to do the right thing.
We came eventually to the knowledge that Holy Saturday is a fast day and a part of the three most holy of the days of the holy week (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday or Easter Vigil) and by extension of the Christian calendar and so, even though it comes after Good Friday, the most mournful day of Christ’s earthly life – when he is taken away, bodily, from his disciples, Luke 5:34. we fast on the day after, Holy Saturday because we commemorate the wait in earnest, after our Lord’s crucifixion (the bridegroom’s exit) – for his resurrection. Yes, the heavens knew then that though it was finished and resurrection resurrection was on it’s way and the earth with the benefit of hindsight, but as at that time, man did not, and so, in commemoration of that event, we fast and mourn on Holy Saturday in hope with Mary his mother and with Mary of Magdala and also with his apostles and the rest of his disciples until the dawn of Easter which brings the full knowledge to us of his resurrection and the confirmation of our salvation.
So, from the above, let’s recalculate:
Lent = 40 Days (including Holy Saturday)
Lent = 6 Weeks
A Week = 7 Days
Fast Days in Lent= 7 × 6= 42
Therefore, Lent = 42 Days
This still doesn’t add up and were we more than flustered! The difference in number of days after painstakingly counting was not one, anyway and so adding Holy Saturday did not make up the difference, giving rise to the main reason for this article!
My People Perish for Lack of Knowledge
The disjunct in number of days, known and that calculated is actually due to the false basis of data given for the calculation and it is simply that though there are rightly 42 days in Six weeks, but not 42 Fast days in Lent which is made up of 6, 6 day Lent week that is, 6 Monday to Saturdays.
So, when I stated earlier that I fasted throughout the period,, it was actually from Monday to Sunday…, yes, I fasted on one (not major) meal a day, 7 Days a week, 6 weeks of Lent, no break!
Funny Realisation?
Every day’s not Good Friday; fast not to die
Well, that’s exactly what I did and unfortunately, quite amiss as, until I discovered, as can now be seen, that there’s no Sunday Fast in Christendom, not even in the ultimate fast season of Lent!
So why is it that in Christianity, as a rule, there’s no fast on Sundays. The simple answer is given in the various forms in which it comes, hereunder:
- It is the day of our Lord
- It is the glorious day of resurrection
- It is the new ultimate day of joy,
- It is the new Sabbath
- It is the day for rejoicing in the confirmation of Christ’s victory over death.
- It is the weekly Easter day
No Sunday Fast
If the above is rightly considered, then there’s no way we’re going to be brooding over the pains of Good Friday on such a day. Instead we would rejoice and feast largely in the manner and hope of our partaking in the eternal feast when Christ comes again, in glory. Sadly, many in Christendom (even regular Christians) who are bystanders or are outside the ambits of the main sphere of knowledge of their faith, do not know this and I was there sometime back too!
So, let’s rework the math:
Lent = 40 Days
Lent = 6 Weeks
A Week = 7 Days
Fast Days in a Lent Week =7 Days – Sunday = 6 Days
Fast Days in Lent= 6 × 6 = 36 Days
Therefore, Lent = 36 Days..Oops!
No Way!!
Where then are the remaining 4 days?
Now, there are 4 days from Ash Wednesday to Saturday PRECEDING the first Sunday (or rather the first week) of Lent, remember?
Add these to the 36 above and tada!!!
40 Days of Lent
So, please do not fast on any Sunday of the year including the Six in the period of Lent, rather, rejoice in the lord and make merry, for it is your privilege as one bought with the blood of Christ into the new and everlasting light to do so.
Addendum
***Let’s be aware that there’s a Sunday of Lent earmarked for a special mode of rejoicing (just as one in advent) and we hope to talk about that, at it’s own time.
Now you can tell:
- that Christians don’t fast on Sundays
- why Christians don’t fast on Sundays
- how Lent comes up to 40 Days !!!
