Lent’s Bright Sadness

Rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him?

Joel 2:13-14a

The writer Alexander Schmemann described the season of Lent as offering a "bright sadness." He wrote, "The purpose of Lent is not to force on us a few formal obligations, but to ‘soften’ our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the spirit, to experience the hidden 'thirst and hunger' for communion with God" (Great Lent: Journey to Pascha 31).

I have honestly never heard anyone else describe Lent that way. There is a method to Lent’s repentant madness. When we recognize our fraught—even rebellious—state, we have a clearer picture of ourselves and the God we believe in. We learn that God can be at once good, just, and merciful. These characteristics may be something we aspire to as individuals and societies, but we rarely even get close to attaining them. God and God alone is perfect.

It’s important to remember that Lent is not mandated by God, but repentance is. Forming a habit of honest self-assessment and seeking the Lord’s mercy does not make us perpetually depressed souls, but, as Schmemann claims, softens our hearts so that we thirst for God and to be in a deeper relationship with Him. Repentance is the best reminder that we are not in control; we don’t have it all figured out, and we find creative ways to make a mess of the gift that God has so graciously given us. We name that and thus flee to the One who is in control, and who can pick up the broken pieces of our lives.

Lent offers us a bright sadness because it offers judgment and hope. It reminds us that we are not meant to remain stuck in our sin and ruled by the wiles of the devil. No, God has done something for us. God has acted in a way we never could. We are sinners, and God is just, yet God is not ruled by righteous indignation but by His loving-kindness. That is why we should bend our knees in prayer and seek His forgiveness, because we know there is grace on the other side. Actually, grace precedes our act of contrition and waits for us on the other side.

So, rend your hearts and not your clothing, for God’s grace precedes and follows our repentance, and brightens the souls of all who forsake their sins.  

Photo by NADER AYMAN on Unsplash