Last Wednesday, with Ash Wednesday, we began the season of Lent. It is not merely a liturgical penitential period, but above all, it is a theological time, a *kairós* that structures the Christian experience of conversion, of the truth about Jesus Christ, and of Paschal hope.
Lent is not a simple cyclical commemoration, but a spiritual pedagogy that educates the believer in the tension between the already and the not yet. In biblical tradition, the forty days refer to foundational experiences: the desert of Israel, Moses on Sinai, Elijah journeying to Mount Horeb, Jesus tempted in the desert… In all cases, time becomes a place of testing, purification, and revelation. Lent places the Church in this same symbolic space: a limited time that orients towards a real transformation.
The Lenten conversion, the change or metanoia, should not be understood only in a moral key, but also in a cognitive and existential key: it is a change of gaze, a reordering of the intellect and desire according to the truth of Christ. For the Christian, Lent challenges the coherence between thought and lived faith, between theological discourse and the way of life. In this sense, fasting, almsgiving, and prayer are not isolated ascetic practices, but true exercises of inner unification.
Far from a repressive vision, Lent proposes an asceticism oriented towards freedom. Fasting, for example, does not deny the body, but rather re-educates it; it reveals to what extent the desires and seductions of this world can become tyrannical. In this sense, Lent engages deeply with classical philosophical tradition — from Aristotle to the Stoics — and with Christian anthropology: only one who knows how to order his appetites according to the good is free.
On the other hand, Lent is not merely a private experience, but above all ecclesial. The entire Church enters into a process of discernment and purification, recognizing its historical fragility and the constant need for reform (Ecclesia semper reformanda). For this reason, Lent also has a prophetic dimension: it questions complicity with power, unbridled consumerism, and contemporary idolatries.
Finally, the ultimate meaning of Lent is Easter. **It does not explain itself, but by Easter**. The cross, which emerges progressively in the Lenten liturgy, is not an exaltation of suffering, but a revelation of love that is given to the very end. Lent prepares the intellect and the heart to understand that the Christian truth is not imposed by force, but is manifested in the gift of oneself.
In summary, Lent is **a time of truth**, in which the Christian is invited to allow himself to be judged by the Gospel, to purify reason and desire, and to reorient all of his existence towards the paschal mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ, the center and ultimate criterion of our own faith.
Joan Planellas
Digital religion
English version translated with AI