NOTES for Mar 15:22-25

When the Pharisees demanded that Christ stop the people who were shouting to Him as He entered Jerusalem, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” the Lord answered them: “if they keep silent, the stones will cry out.” Today, shortly before the beginning of Great Lent, we read about that turning point in history when human voices fell silent and the stones cried out. The darkness over the whole earth from the sixth hour to the ninth, and the earthquake, reveal to us that what is taking place on Golgotha concerns the whole creation. The curtain torn in the Temple becomes a sign of God’s boundless self-emptying for our sake. Throughout the time that follows, we will prepare to live through this event anew in our hearts.

We are accustomed to thinking of Easter as a joyful feast, with Easter cakes and gifts. This is of course true. But the ancient Church called the very day of the Crucifixion the feast of Pascha, and the Resurrection was celebrated together with it on the same day. The form of celebration was in fact fasting, a prayerful concentration on the day of Jesus Christ’s death. At first this fast lasted one or two days, and only from the year 330 did a forty-day fast become customary. Thus Great Lent, generally speaking, is not so much a preparation for celebrating Easter. Rather, it is itself the celebration of the central event of our life: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.