As we enter the back half of the season of Lent we are near to Laetare Sunday or ‘Rejoice Sunday’ which occurs on the 4th Sunday of Lent. It is meant to be a Sunday to celebrate – in the middle of a season of solemnity – as we approach Easter. 

It kind of feels like a lot to unpack. Lent itself is meant to be a time that breaks us off from our usual rhythms and patterns of life.  It is a time to pull back from all the usual things that occupy our attention in order to make room to focus on the promises of God, on our baptismal call to take up the cross and follow. Lenten discipline is about doing things that help us to see God, to see what God is revealing to us in and through Jesus’ journey to the cross. 

But maybe it is a bit weird that after only 3 Sundays of Lent, there would be a Sunday where we pause the solemn and sombre reflection to celebrate. Surely five weeks of Lenten discipline isn’t too much to ask of us, too hard for us to follow.

While sometimes it can feel like the Church has a million rules, especially when it comes to worship and liturgy, the practices and traditions that we follow come from generations of Christians previously forming and shaping them. Maybe all the faithful siblings in faith who came before us understood what human beings are really like. We need shifts in pace, big and small, to help us along the way. Taking a moment to celebrate that we are nearly through our Lenten journey is a way to help us mark the passing of time, to keep us from getting too weighed down by Lent. 

Though it seems like five weeks isn’t that long, we are creatures who need signposts to help us along the way. We are not meant to do the same thing over and over; rather we live according to rhythms and cycles that mark and make meaning of time. Even though we live by patterns of annual and seasonal repetition, we need things to change day to day, week to week in order that we can locate ourselves in time. We need things to change to keep us engaged and present in the here and now. 

At four weeks into Lent, we anticipate the end of our Lenten journey, knowing what is to come in Holy Week. We look with even more hope to what is coming at Easter, and it is this hope that allows us to finish the journey of Lent.

So this week we take a moment to celebrate that the promise of resurrection is just and always around the corner.