Of all the countercultural practices of the church, keeping a holy Lent—a season in which we contemplate our own mortality—is surely the most peculiar. The Modern age is hell-bent on rejecting the reality of lent: from dust we come, to dust we go. In their book Heal Thyself: Spirituality, Medicine, and the Distortion of Christianity, ethicists Joel Shuman and Keith Meador argue that death is being exorcized from our collective imagination:

“In contemporary North American Culture, no less than any other, health and medicine tend to be viewed through particular ideological lenses. One of these is a scientific and technological optimism that sustains the tacit belief that science may one day altogether deliver us from sickness and death and every other limitation placed on us by our bodies. Increasingly, we see a long, vigorous life as our inalienable birthright and medicine as the protector of that right.”

Viewing health as a right—rather than a gift—affects not only our view of life, but also our view of death. Whereas death has been a part of everyday life for most of human history, modern man has relegated the entire process of dying to specialists: from hospice workers to funeral directors.

Of course, avoiding death is a fool’s errand. However hard we try to keep it at bay, it sneaks in: at Halloween, in gory movies, with the death of a friend. We are then harshly summoned back to a sharp reality of this fallen world: we all die. You can turn your eye, but you can’t turn your being.

Historically, the church has been a space where we can process death in a context of hope. Lent is one such space, but it’s far from the only one. The ubiquity of church graveyards in antiquity testifies to the fact that, when seen through the lens of the gospel, death isn’t a thing to be feared. The dead can be among us precisely because we will soon be among them as we await the resurrection.

For believers in Jesus, hope isn’t found in keeping death away, but in keeping God near. And as we hold tight to the promises of God, we look unblinkingly into the dark night, confident of the morning to come. We keep a holy Lent in the sure hope that Easter is around the corner. We’re moving from dust, to dust, to glory.

How's your Lenten journey? Don't forget that we have very particular ways to encourage you along your way, including the Journey to the Cross Lenten Art Exhibit, the sacrament of Reconciliation, Morning and Evening Prayer weekly, and a major feast coming NEXT week.