Lent is the time for sacrificing self, making more space both for God and neighbour.
Posted on February 21st 2010 in
Many years ago a Dominican Friar amused a group of undergraduates about the realities of Lent inside a religious community. He explained how different members of his community would give up cigarettes, wine and stronger drink. However, it was not the abstainers doing the penance, but the rest of the community who had to put up with their irascibility for the duration of Lent. I am not sure he was being completely serious, but the audience could grasp his point.
The practices of Lent need not show on the outside, nor should they force family members to become unwitting accomplices to our bad moods owing to a lack of sugar, coffee, alcohol and the like. The privations of Lent are neither meant to be like hurdles in an obstacle race that one must jump over to reach the finishing line of Easter. That said, it is good to give up something simple and enjoyable over Lent just to remind us that, though it hardly ever looks like it in the modern world, God is the first cause of all that exists. It is too easy both for the secular individual, who never darkens the door of a religious building, and for the religious individual, with their religious practices, to think that everything relies on themselves alone. If only I could earn more, or consume more, then I would be happy. If only I said more prayers I would then become closer to God. It might well be the case that one could become happier with more money, and it could well be possible to become closer to God through a greater prayer life but, if the focus is all on oneself, then the answer is probably no.
The demands for the Lenten fast are there for us to make space for God in our lives, and in so doing make space for others. Hence fasting, the denial of self, is joined to prayer to make space for God, and almsgiving to make space for our neighbour. In a very simple way the time spent devoted to one’s favourite television programme, or surfing the internet, might become the time for spiritual reading, or the time to sit and talk with our families, or call or write to a long lost friend. Almsgiving does of course involve giving money to charity but it must also mean something more.
The most precious gift we possess is our time, and to share it with God or with others is therefore a major sacrifice. The contemporary world fills time with attainment targets whether at work or even in the home. Time should not be wasted to the modern mind, but the ability to waste time together is one of the marks of true love. This is not about doing nothing necessarily, but of consciously being together and present to each other, irrespective of other pressing and selfish demands. This might become one of our Lenten practices, and might well lead to the rediscovery of God and of our neighbour.