Hello, everyone. I’m sure by now you’ve noticed that the large crucifix in front of the church has been covered for Lent. In some churches, this is done as part of the Lenten fast; just as we fast from food, so too we fast from heavenly images as a reminder of our being in exile, our wandering through the desert of this life in preparation for entering the Promised Land, our heavenly home. Traditionally, this veiling was done for the last two weeks of Lent, called “Passiontide” in the old calendar.

In our church, the veiling is done for a related reason. The corpus on our cross is the Risen Christ, whose resurrection we celebrate at Easter. Lent is a preparation for that celebration, and the most prominent theme of Lent is taking up our cross in order to follow Christ. While not forgetting about the Resurrection (after all, what meaning would our crosses have without the Resurrection?), we veil the Risen Lord in order to help us focus more intentionally on the cross, and on joining our sacrifices and sufferings to Christ’s on Calvary. At Easter, when our eyes are able to feast once more on the Risen Jesus, hopefully our hearts will be all the more joyful and thankful as we recall the great things God has done for us. Make sense? Pass it on, won’t you?