Easter leads through 40 days ... to 50, and beyond

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Lent seems like a time long ago, doesn't it? Easter is already five weeks past, and those 40 days of prayer and fasting seem only a distant memory.

Yet, we are in the midst of another 40 days - the time between Easter and the Ascension (on May 1, but which we will celebrate on Sunday, May 4.)

The number 40 is fairly important in our faith tradition, from 40 hours to 40 years.

New Testament professor Tim Friedrichsen noted that, while there is no way to know if the number is meant literally or figuratively in the Bible, "the number 40 appears to symbolize a significant period of time when it's possible to make some real change." Friedrichsen cited the Book of Jonah (3:4), where the city is given 40 days to repent or be destroyed by God, "which seems to say less time than that isn't enough, and more time is too much."

But we can go back farther in the Scriptures than Jonah and find the number 40.

• In Genesis, the flood was caused by a deluge of 40 days and 40 nights;
  
  
• Moses spent 40 days on Mt. Sinai with God after receiving the Law (Ex 24:18);
  
  
• The Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the desert before reaching the land of Canaan (Dt 8:2-5);
  
  
• The prophet Elijah fled into the desert for 40 days until he reached the "mountain of God" Horeb (1Kgs 19:8);

And then we have the 40 days we know best - Jesus' time in the desert after his baptism and before he began his ministry.

In the Bible, journeys into the desert represent a personal encounter with God. Fr. Ron Rolheiser, speaking about Lent, said "the desert, biblically and mystically, is not so much a physical place, a geography, as a place in the heart. The desert is that place where we go to face our demons, feel our smallness, be in special intimacy with God and prepare ourselves for the Promised Land."

In the same way, the 40 days that followed the Lord's resurrection were days of special intimacy with Jesus and preparation for his disciples. As the author of Acts of the Apostles wrote, Jesus "presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God" (1:3). Likewise, the author of John tells us that the risen "Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book" (20:30).

Those post-resurrection times with Jesus are not recorded, perhaps because they symbolizes each disciple's time alone with Jesus. Each of us must likewise go into the desert - a quiet, sometimes desolate, place - where there is only us and God.

That is, in part, the idea behind yet another "40" that developed in the church around the 16th century: the 40 Hours devotion. This devotion of time, spent in continuous prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, is meant to commemorate the 40 hours that the Lord spent in the tomb. (The tradition is that Jesus was buried at 3 p.m. on Good Friday and rose again at 6 a.m. on Sunday.)

Whether or not the number 40, in itself, is significant, it does seem that scripture - and our own faith tradition - mean to tell us that time spent with the Lord is needed in order to truly live as a disciple. A disciple learns from a teacher - and that learning takes time, and includes times in the desert. This is why God takes his chosen ones - Noah, Moses, the Israelites, the Twelve - aside for time alone.

During the Easter season, we spend time with the Lord - and with each other. Through Mass readings from the Acts of the Apostles, we learn again about the early days of the church. In the same way, those who were baptized at the Easter vigil - the neophytes - share these 40 days with us as a special period of learning and preparation in church life.

We are experiencing together in these 40 days, the resurrection life of the Lord.

As Pope Benedict said in his Easter message: "With his redeeming sacrifice, Jesus of Nazareth has made us adopted children of God, so that we too can now take our place in the mysterious dialogue between him and the Father."

The times of 40 - whether in the desert or the flood, on the mountain, or in the tomb - are always times of preparation and promise. God was there in the flood, on the mountain, in the tomb; Jesus is present in the Blessed Sacrament and in his church now.

That is why the times of 40 have been transformed with the power of the resurrection. Easter season does not last 40 days - it is a 50-day season. Those extra 10 days lead us to Pentecost - an entirely new encounter with God, through the Spirit poured out upon all the disciples.

It is in the Spirit's power that we realize that our journeys are no longer like the wanderings in the desert or the floating of an ark on the flood. In those experiences of God - God always remained just a little distant, on the mountain or in the desert. Now Jesus and the Spirit have changed all that. Our God may still be, as Franciscan Fr. Michael Guinan said, "a God who calls us continually out of secure and comfortable presents into unknown and risky futures," but we know that those are no longer journeys that will last 40 hours, 40 days or 40 years. The Lord of Easter says, "Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20) and we know that the experience of intimacy with God will never end.

(Sources: Western Catholic Reporter; www.vatican.va; The Catholic Update; the CUA Update; The Catholic Encyclopedia)