We’re already more than a third of the way through the season of Lent. Today is the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. By the way, the word Lent, in English, comes from the Old English word for Spring – that time of year marked by the emerging of new life all around. This is a time of birth and rebirth, a season of growth, renewal, and with renewal a renewed energy of hope. Life goes on, despite all the best efforts of winter, and ours, to suppress it.

In the Christian tradition, there is evidence that the institution of a prolonged time of fasting and other practices to prepare believers for the great Feast of Easter began during the time of the apostles. In 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea established the 40 day period of fasting and penance, based on the great fasts described in the Bible of Elijah, Moses and Jesus, as the standard way for persons who were seeking to enter the Body of Christ through Baptism.

To become members of the Church these petitioners needed to prepare themselves, and the whole Church accompanied them in the penitential actions. Nowadays Lent is practiced, in some form, by all the mainline Christian churches. In the East it is referred to as the time of “bright sadness” – the necessary period of repentance in anticipation of the joyful celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection.

For those of us who follow the path through Lent year after year with the same practices and liturgical readings it can become routine. It can lose its savor for us. Lent is not about “beating ourselves up” because we’re sinners. It’s just a fact that we sin, that we act unlovingly, untruthfully, self-centeredly. Lent is an opportunity for us to fine-tune our life to be more in line with the Gospel. But this takes intentional action.

We need to discover and to choose practices that help us to counter those aspects of our life that are hindering us from being more fully the person God desires us to be. The Church maintains that prayer, fasting and acts of charity are surefire means to confront and to overcome our spiritual bad habits. But these can become just another part of background noise of our lives if we don’t take time to regularly remember why we’re doing them.

At Easter we are invited to recall, relive and to celebrate our own Baptism. We have been immersed, plunged into the mystery of Life beyond death. We have already sacramentally tasted and shared in the Resurrection of Jesus. It is God’s enduring love, embodied in Jesus, that impels us to desire and to act toward becoming our true selves. So, we engage ourselves each day of Lent in those practices that we have found actually help us to grow in this way.

This morning, in our Men’s Spirituality Group, the always evolving conversation came around to the Scripture readings for these first days of Lent. Both the prophet Isaiah and Jesus are railing against hypocrites and hypocrisy. This pushed me to do some study on the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic terms used in the Bible that are translated as hypocrite.

One of the men, who enjoys exploring words, came up with the meaning for hypocrite as “actor.” Yes, and there’s more. It’s true that the Greek words upo (low, below, behind, beneath) and crites (interpret, judge, explain) combined to describe those who performed in classical Greek drama. Each character was represented by a huge mask.

The audience never sees the real person. Even if there were multiple characters in the play and only one actor, he would come on stage with the different masks, at the right moment, according to the script. He would deliver his lines from behind the mask. The actor on stage was always “two-faced” (his own beneath the mask’s).

We know the usual meaning of hypocrite – someone who says one thing, but does the opposite – contradicting their message and diluting the authority of their voice. Someone who pretends to be someone or something one is not – hiding one’s real self, covering his / her true identity, presenting themselves as a very different character. 

When Jesus was calling out the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites he may have used a Greek, a Hebrew, or an Aramaic term. Any of the three is possible. Or, maybe Jesus used implications from all three??? The Hebrew word, chaneph, is strong = corrupt, soiled by sin (unclean), godless. The Aramaic combines two words that together mean “face-taker” (similar to the Greek sense) – one who isn’t what he / she seems.

Jesus accused these religious leaders of misleading the people through their pretense. They outwardly displayed righteousness (as in doing the right thing, putting on a show) while being, at heart, insincere and downright deceitful. They were more concerned with appearances than with genuine faith and obedience to God. They tended to wedge their reading of the Law between the people and God, putting the Law above the living God. They substituted external practice for having a personal relationship with God.

The irony is that the true meaning of righteousness in the Scriptures is to be in right relationship with God, others and self. It is very close to the biblical concept of justice, treating others as God treats us. Righteousness goes far beyond simply doing what looks right. It seems that Jesus could be inviting us to live out of our truest, deepest selves this Lent. This is how we can honor God.