Easter is at the centre of the liturgical practice and faith of Christianity. It is the time to remember and to celebrate that we are in fact immortal spiritual beings - and not just intelligent animals with a fixed life-span.
The first of the seven readings of the traditional Easter Vigil is the Genesis story of creation where we are reminded that "God created humankind in his image." (Gn 1:27)
That is the point of Easter: we are created in God's image as immortal spiritual beings, and Jesus demonstrated that when he rose from the dead and appeared to people (then and still now) as a resurrected person. That is the point of Easter.
So what is the point of Lent?
Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday this week, is a very old tradition. For some people Lent is a time to make ourselves worthy (through acts of penance, prayer and giving) to become immortal spiritual people created in the Creator's image.
But that view is not how I see it!
We are already immortal spiritual beings created in God's image, so we are already worthy.
But the immediacy of our physical lives takes over and we spend most of our time worrying about the physical threats and dangers we face, or responding to the deluge of sensory stimulation bombarding us.
Lent is a time when we go back to basics and remind ourselves that we are in fact spiritual beings with an umbilical cord rooted in our Creator.
We can work for seven weeks to put our physical needs where they belong - by putting things right and giving up some of our little luxuries, by talking daily to our God, and by giving our stuff and money away to remind us that, in fact, we don't need it all!
If we don't do that, we drift more and more deeply into the physical world, until in the end we cannot conceive of any other.
PS Don't forget that you are welcome to join me on my pilgrimage to Easter - for the remaining 43 days, or just when you can: http://meditations-insights.blogspot.co.nz/
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