“The Radiant Sadness” – The Great Lent

The Fathers describe Lent as “Radiant Sadness,” two expressions that seem contradictory. This time of the year—the forty days of Great Lent preceding the Pascha of the Lord—forms a period of purification, of distancing from the passions, of acquiring virtues, and of spiritual growth. The old man is invited to “put on the new man” (Eph. 4:24). Lent, while it is joy and a source of joy, is also paradoxically “sadness” because of the Passion and death of Christ. Associated with days of fasting and abstinence in expectation of the Resurrection and its celebration, the Cross is both an object of sorrow and of joy because of Christ’s victory over the powers of darkness.

Are we not carried into the very depths of ourselves, through the Lenten services taught by the Triodion, before the proclamation of our death and our resurrection? Every baptized person who repents participates in this movement of the soul: returning to the state before the Fall through ascetic effort. We struggle against the illnesses of the soul—anger, greed, lust, gluttony, pride—by mastering all the functions of the body. “Asceticism is the mother of sanctification, depriving the body of comfort through hunger” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 26). On the summit of Mount Sinai, Moses practiced asceticism for forty days (Ex. 34:28). Later, many ascetics withdrew into the desert, imitating Moses and his people who were tested for forty years.

The Triodion, the liturgical book used from the Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican until Holy Saturday, the eve of the Resurrection, is solemnly placed before the icon of Christ and then entrusted to the canonarch. The biblical readings contained in the Triodion are of three kinds: Genesis, which establishes God’s covenant with His people; Proverbs, which exalt divine wisdom; and Isaiah, the great prophet of God, who reveals to us the Suffering Servant and the perpetual sacrifice of Christ. The book of the Triodion unfolds a profound spiritual intensity, far removed from formalism, dietary obligation, or legal prescriptions—as is true of the entire season of fasting. The spirit of love for God excludes moral formalism.

The combined use of the Psalms—most of them written by King David around the year 1000 before Christ—and the Triodion forms the foundation of the services of this unique period of the year. Christ prayed the Psalms. They express praise, repentance, and every spiritual state that the person of prayer may experience.

“Let us continue to fast, without darkening our faces, but praying in the depths of our souls” (Vespers sticheron, Triodion of Wednesday of the fourth week). There is nothing to display in public squares for those who seek God, but rather something to cultivate in the secret of the heart: the humility of the Publican, which grants to penitents “the rewards of the Spirit.”

Copyright Doxologia

One prayer in particular expresses the spirit of Lent, attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian and punctuated by prostrations:

Lord and Master of my life,take from me the spirit of idleness, discouragement, domination, and idle talk.

But grant to Your servant the spirit of purity, humility, patience, and love.

Yes, Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother,for You are blessed unto ages of ages.

Amen.

This supplication is like a medical prescription or therapeutic injunction of the holy forty days. While the entire Triodion draws us into a collective and liturgical exercise, the prayer of St. Ephrem invites us to personal effort, aiming to remove the principal causes of our downfall: laziness or idleness, discouragement or acedia, domination over others—which can also take the form of indifference—and finally idle talk, often useless, deceitful, illusory, or toxic. These illnesses of the soul can turn our existence into hell. Conversely, purity, humility, patience, and charity weave saving crowns for our souls.

Great Lent hastens the return of the soul toward the Kingdom; it opens wide the window onto eternity. It renews the necessity of returning to human nature as it was before the Fall, awaiting the return of the dawn and the first rays of the Paschal sun. The Fathers delight in speaking of “a springtime of the soul.” The history of salvation—of the Fall and repentance—grounded in the biblical narrative, is recapitulated in Christ. Lived intensely during Holy Lent, it proposes our return to a world that speaks to us of God and exhorts us to share in His Glory.