St George’s Cathedral
‘Bright Sadness’:
Lent as a Season of Hope
The Revd Dr Bill Leadbetter, Assistant Curate, St George’s Cathedral
When we think of Lent as a season, it would be fair to say that most of us think of it in terms of ‘giving up something’ for its duration. While this recalls its much older expression, as a period of fasting, I wonder just how much our Lenten discipline is is something we do simply because it is something that we do. A bit like New Year’s resolutions or eating roast lamb on Easter Day.
Lent and fasting have been associated with one another (at least) ever since the Council of Nicaea, the 1700th anniversary of which we celebrate this year. Specifically Lent itself, and its long fast, recall the forty days and forty nights that Jesus spent in the wilderness, preparing for his mission.
The wilderness is understood in our texts as a place of uncertainty, solitude and vulnerability. Jesus’ long fast culminated in three moments of temptation in which Satan sought to find a point of fatal weakness. In Luke’s account, the devil suggests that Jesus might assuage the gnawing hunger of forty days of fasting by turning stones to bread; then offers him the kingdoms of the world; and finally entices him to a spectacular sign of power. In each case, the devil is suggesting that Jesus perform an extraordinary act in a way that would principally benefit himself. In each case, Jesus withstands the temptation and, by doing so, defines the kind of Messiah that he is going to be: the one who is the servant of all.
Jesus emerges from the wilderness ready to commence a ministry that is never about him, but only ever about others. In standing firm, he has transformed this place of despair into a source of hope.
This is the essence of the Lenten tradition. The Orthodox call Lent the season of ‘bright sadness’, the place where hope is born out of the barren desert of despair. Lent is not only a time of penitence: it also foreshadows the days of Easter with which it concludes, the days in which our sadness is shot through with joy, for in suffering there is hope, as in crucifixion, there is resurrection.
St George’s Cathedral will be marking this season of bright sadness with a series of Lenten studies led by Dr Sue Boorer, entitled ‘The Wilderness as a Place of Hope’. Whatever you might give up this Lent to mark the season, the Cathedral invites you also to take up the discipline of coming to our Lenten studies each Saturday morning (15 March; 22 March; 29 March; 5 April). The sessions begin at 9.15am, and you are also welcome to join us for worship from 8.00am.