The beginning of Lent with its various Biblical and spiritual images gives us an example of the sacramental imagination at work (See "The Catholic Imagination is a Sacramental Imagination (Part II)" HERE). Recall, I wrote about how we have this capacity to "think with images," what we call imagination, and through images we understand reality, in complement with reason also. We live more from images, many would argue, than from abstract thinking.
Our Catholic religious imagination, which uses many images and symbols, has highly developed the spiritual imagery of the desert, especially when it comes to Lent, but even more so in what is called "desert spirituality," (See "Desert Fathers" in Wikipedia HERE) and in monasticism.
Like most geographical images, the image of the desert evokes a wide range of experiences and meanings. Some of them are:
A place of few distractions due to a landscape of few elements: sand, rock, some vegetation, open, vast spaces and few residents. We usually think of the sand deserts, but other landscapes can be desert-like, for example a deserted place, island, or property.
Can be a place where all questions get reduced to what is essential for life, especially water. The desert evokes the need for water.
The desert can be a place, then of challenges. It can feel like a lonely place, a place where there is the threat of dying or perishing. A place where the question is "Will I survive?" Thus it often represents the times and feelings of being in a crisis, especially where one’s life in thrown into question or desolation.
On the other hand the desert can be a place for experiencing God. There is so little to obscure the vastness of the skies, especially at night where the night sky is illuminated with the vast array of stars, and the awesomeness of "God on High" is evoked.
For most, the desert is a place to pass through, not to remain in longer than necessary. There are easier places to live than the desert, but there is no place like the desert to fast from all the distractions and overload of the stimuli of modern life and just have time to be quiet and listen.
As one author notes: "The desert often invokes images of a vast expanse, a timeless space of beauty, wonder and longing. Many come to the desert to commune with a higher power or the forces of nature. Indeed, for much poetry about the desert was an allegory for a spiritual quest."
The desert (sometimes also called "the wilderness") serves a symbolic function in life and in religion. In the history of God’s People Israel (recorded in what we call the Old Testament of the Bible), the "founding Patriarch" Abraham and his wife Sarah lived a nomadic life in the desert. In the early stories of the Old Testament, "city-life" was often suspect (Abraham’s nephew Lot lived in the city of Sodom and met tragedy there: see Genesis 19:13-13).
Later, Moses led the People of Israel out of the slavery of Egypt into the desert, where for 40 years they wandered (detailed in the Book of Exodus). This freedom and Exodus became the defining religious event for the Israelites, celebrated annually as Passover. The children of Israel under Moses were journeying through the desert to the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, corresponding loosely to the modern country of Israel and surrounding areas.
For the prophets, the desert was a symbol of the intimate relationship of God and his people when the people were dependent upon their God who led them out of slavery and sin. For example, the Lord speaks through the Prophet Hosea to Israel in spousal imagery, for Israel was unfaithful to God, her "covenant partner":
"But then I will win her back once again.
I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there.
I will return her vineyards to her
and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope.
She will give herself to me there,
as she did long ago when she was young,
when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt." --Hosea 2:14-15
In the New Testament, the desert continues as a place to go to get away from life’s complications and preoccupations and to get closer to God. Thus, John the Baptist first appears in the Gospel, ‘beyond the Jordan River" (but close to it, also), in the desert preaching repentance and works of salvation. He describes himself as "A Voice in the wilderness crying, "prepare the Way of the Lord.’"
Famously, Jesus himself goes into the desert for 40 days and nights to be tested and tempted, to also prepare for his mission as Savior. Like a new Moses, he will lead humanity from the slavery of sin and into the Kingdom of God, eventually to the Promised Land of Heaven. But first we must pass through the desert, or in this case death and letting go, to experience his New Life. We Christians also have a Passover: the Passover with Jesus in his dying and rising (the Paschal Mystery).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church #540 states: "By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert."
Obviously Lent is patterned on the mystery of Jesus in the desert, imitating his practice of fasting and praying while we are voluntarily led into the spiritual desert of Lent. The Church from the very beginning has fasted and prayed. However, Lent developed over time, in various ways and in various places. It was created as preparation for Baptism at the Easter Vigil (the night before Easter Sunday) when this became an established practice, fully by the mid 4th century when Christianity was no longer persecuted.
Still today, the purpose of Lent is to prepare our Catechumens for baptism and to renew our own Baptismal commitments at Easter. The preparation of the spiritual desert well serves this goal.
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| The Desert at Night |
See also my past Personal Blog HERE for more on the desert and Lent
