‘The haunting celebration of the indescribable mystery of Jesus passing from death to new life, marks the completion of the journey of the Christian community through the wilderness of Lent to the promised land of Easter.’ Sr Teresa White FCJ takes stock of our Lenten pilgrimage as we prepare for the joy and abundance that will characterise our arrival at Easter. This article first appeared in Thinking Faith, a Jesuit online journal.
In early January, during a cold spell in France, where I was staying at the time, a météo bulletin on the television showed a line of eight or nine people mutely climbing up a steep, icy mountain path. There was a sheer drop on one side and the going was tough. Before long, the camera focused on a narrow side-track, and the climbers smiled when they saw it. It led to an almost invisible aperture, like a portal, framed by bare, snow-laden branches of stunted trees on either side. The climbers passed through, and there below them was a steaming pool. They all ran towards it, stripped off their outer clothing and entered the water with shouts of joy. I think the journalist said the surrounding temperature was -10 or -12 degrees Celsius…
Remembering that scene, the arduous, silent journey and the ecstatic arrival, it seemed to me to be an image of Lent. For this liturgical season, moving towards its culmination in the celebration of Easter, encapsulates two symbols that are deeply rooted in the human imagination: wilderness and paradise, desert and Promised Land. The Easter Vigil, the haunting celebration of the indescribable mystery of Jesus passing from death to new life, marks the completion of the journey of the Christian community through the wilderness of Lent to the promised land of Easter.
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