Here we are at the first Friday of Lent, and the conversation around the holy water font is usually something like this:
“So, what are you giving up for Lent?”
“Cookies and pastry, you?”
“Bowling. Although this year, my league’s raising it’s fees, so I might actually save some money!”
“You don’t say? Well, I’ve been trying to lose some weight anyway so win-win eh? See you at the fish-fry!”
Does anyone see something wrong here?
Anyone? Bueller?
The Christian life is about becoming more and more conformed to the image of Christ. To put it in a Benedictine way, conversion of life.
So each year, the Church in her wisdom presents us with these 40+ days to renew and rededicate ourselves to this conversion. She gives us penitential practices like fasting, abstinence, and almsgiving to increase our humility and to remind us that life is short. We take a kind of spiritual selfie so we can see ourselves as we really are.
By sincerely trying to follow these practices we open ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit who is ever guiding us on the path of repentance.
Our momentary sorrow will culminate in joy with the glorious resurrection of Christ on Easter morning. Then we too can say “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me!”
When people ask me what I’m giving up for Lent, I say, “I’m giving up being so much of me.”
EXCELLENT point, Rob! I’ve often struggled with the idea of ‘giving up’ something (cookies, chips, etc.), partly because it became so disconnected (at least in my own heart) from being conformed into His image!
The effort to ‘give stuff up’ became a burden, and led nowhere–except to animosity toward religion and faith. It became something to ‘tolerate’, more than to prayerfully celebrate.