last day of Lent

Today is the last day of Lent (day 40). It's also called Holy Saturday. Today is supposed to be the darkest (spiritually) day of the Christian year. We're supposed to confront ourselves with the fact of Jesus' death and pretend that we don't know about the miracle that will happen tomorrow on Easter. That act of pretending is especially hard for a minister as I've been planning for the Easter service and my sermon is already written.

Lent is successful if it has made us take notice of our human natures, the fact that we're not the most important thing in the world, that there will be a time when we are not. But Lent isn't meant to be depressing, just revealing. Nor is this last day of Lent, though the darkest day of the liturgical year, meant to be despairing.

The point it to prepare for Easter. And getting the promise of Easter is the spiritual point of the 40 day exercise. When we see that we are not the most important creature, when we really get that we are not all-powerful and infinite, then we can move our spiritual foundation away from our own egos and put our spiritual health on a foundatioin where it will really stand: the love of God.

It's useful to go through that exercise every year because it's hard to really live out of the truth of the love of God every day. Periodically forgetting our best selves is one of the frailties of being human. But because I truly feel the love of God in my life and see it in the world around me, it's hard to even pretend to be depressed.

Here comes Easter.