When we start a program of dieting and exercise, we have a special reason and a specific goal in mind. We want to regain our former shape, to tone our muscles and recover our health.
We also have a special goal in mind when we begin our Lenten Journey. We want to experience Christ's presence in our lives. We want His resurrection to become our own resurrection and freedom from sin and the unruly passions of our bodies and souls. We want to "taste and see," to experience the presence of His spirit, His saving grace in our everyday lives.
Before their rebellion and fall, Adam and Eve had personal communion with God in Paradise. They were conversing daily with Him, person to person. They were enjoying the bliss of God's abundant blessings upon them.
When they consented to the serpent's sly temptation and disobeyed God's commandment, Adam and Eve were deprived of God's blessing. They thought that they would become gods by eating the forbidden fruit, and instead they lost God's grace, and instead experienced the devil's chilling darkness in their souls. They experienced what we still feel ourselves every time we disobey God's commandment. Very aptly someone said, "Sin appears so sweet in the beginning, but so bitter at the end." One hymn of the Church depicts Adam sitting outside the Garden of Eden lamenting his great loss. Pleadingly Adam asks Paradise to intercede to its Maker to allow him once more to enjoy the indescribable blessing he had before. In another hymn, the hymnographer allows a ray of hope to disperse Adam’s bleak condition and spiritual darkness: He quotes God saying: "I will not allow my penitent creature to perish forever.”
The devil did not repent for his rebellion against God. He wants us now to follow him, to be rebellious against God and perish with him. But God wants to save us. He wants us to acknowledge and repent for our sins and return to Him in order to find healing and salvation.
Great Lent is set aside by our Church in order to help us find our way back to God. The promised hope has come and directs us toward salvation. God, Who visited us in His Son Emmanuel on Christmas, leads us with His example, with His teaching and His loving suffering for us on Good Friday. He invites us to enjoy the victory and abundant light of Easter.
As we cannot achieve our goal of a comely shape and physical health by mere wishful thinking, in the same way we cannot experience the victory and joy of Easter, without traveling through Great Lent and practicing its disciplines: Fasting (according to our ability.) almsgiving, repentance, forgiveness, prayer, confession, Holy Communion, reading the Bible and other spiritual books, and attending as many Lenten Services as possible.
A Blessed Great Lent!