IN QUARANTINE
IN QUARANTINE

Summary/Abstract: Lent has fallen this year at a time when the world is beset by a deadly pandemic and is forced into quarantine. The term “quarantine” originated in medieval times when it was felt necessary to isolate those infected with contagion. Etymologically, it meant “a period of 40 days” and came to be associated with a period of both seclusion and of healing. Lent traditionally lasts for 40 days (not counting the Sabbaths). It commences on Ash Wednesday (marking the beginning of Lenten austerity, when penitent man is mindful of his creaturehood, signified by ashes) and ends on Easter Sunday (marking for Christians the Resurrection – the promise that, as Imago Dei, man is destined to transcend the frailties of the human condition). It is a time of inwardness and humility, of repentance (for the sins of forgetfulness and excess) and purification. The 40 days period also evokes for Christians the time spent by Jesus in the wilderness after his baptism – a time of testing and the confirmation of faith – and the period between Resurrection and Ascension – denoting spiritual rebirth and sublimation.

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