Forty: the time of motherhood

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

Number 40 has a very symbolic meaning in the Bible. Here are many of the examples connected to number 40: the rains fell in Noah’s days for 40 days and nights, Moses travelled for 40 years in the desert, this number recalls the days of the conversion of Ninive, the years of Saul’s reign, David and Salomon’ kingdom... Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights in the desert: it was his Lent.

Number 40 generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or probation for God’s people. It does not only have a chronological meaning as a sum of days, but it is a time of trial and testing, of hope, it is the time of new growth and transformation. Curiously many events of our lives are connected with this number, especially in procreation: the days to confirm a possible pregnancy, the weeks of gestation before delivery, the days of physical recovery... the number that marks the birth of life!

This is what will happen during Lent (that begins on 5 March with Ash Wednesday) because it is the time that creates a new life, the time of motherhood. It is a theology of the “flesh” to rediscover the forty days of Lent in an existential key, linked to the mystery of life of which women are the first guardians, a symbolic complement of all the numbering in the Bible. Lent is a time of gestation to give birth to the new creature we are called to become in Jesus died and resurrected. It is not only a moral perspective (to turn away from sin), neither an act of will making a good resolution (I want to change my life) nor a “spiritual conversion” (just changing our intentions)...

It means to open our hearts to this time fecundated by the Word to give birth to the new man in our spirit. Not only for us but for the whole creation according to the profound and enigmatic words that Saint Paul wrote to the Romans: “We know that all creation is groaning in labour pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies (Romans, 22-23). Will 40 days be enough?