Let's Give Up "Lent" for Lent

Lent begins soon (Feb. 14), and if you’re like me, that news brings a gut-wrenching wave of panic at having to answer the mother of all questions: what should I give up for Lent?

Let me suggest this: How about giving up Lent for Lent.

Now – before you speed-dial the Bishop to report a wayward deacon espousing heresy – let me explain. I don’t mean that we should do away with Lent, the liturgical season. I mean we should give up Lent-as-we-have-known-it, and replace that attitude with an intentional Lent.

What is “Lent-as-we-have-known-it”? You know: viewing Lent as negative, gloomy time, a time to be punished for being a half-fast (say it quickly) Catholic: perhaps not tithing as we promised, possibly nodding off during a homily (or a few), occasionally leaving church immediately after receiving Communion. I am sure there are some reading this article who went to mass only once on the Fourth Sunday of Advent/Christmas Eve mashup….

The attitude of Lent as a time for confessing and doing penance for our Catholic short-comings is what many of us think of when we think of Lent. Well, THAT VIEW HAS TO GO. That’s what I am suggesting we give up for Lent: that attitude. It was understandable in fifth grade, but it’s a spiritually immature view now that we’re adults.

Lent is not a time of punishment, privation, or persecution. It’s not a time for feeling bad about ourselves for breaking Catholic rules; nor for living in a cloud of ash dust and wearing scratchy clothes in an effort to repent (“it’s good for you”); nor is it a time for perseverating on our certain death and become hopeless nihilists.

Rather, Lent is a time for pursuing more intentionally the two great commandments of loving God and one another. (Hear “relationship” embedded in those commandments!)  Let us view Lent, then, as less about the practices of our religion, and more about deepening relationships that align with God’s will. Let us view the goal of Lent not as an effort to check boxes, grit our teeth, and endure a bleak six week sentence; instead let us view the goal of Lent as gift of time dedicated to foster spiritual growth.

The sacrifices of Lent are meant not to mire us in checkbox religiosity, but to increase the depth of our relationships – with God through prayer, with others through charity, and with myself in disciplined living. As Scripture reminds us:

“I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6, New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition)

“What do I care for the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and of fatlings…. [Instead] cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.” (Isaiah 1:11,16,17, New American Bible Revised Edition)

“For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a [humbled] spirit; a…contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17, New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition)

An intentional Lent shifts one’s attitude toward the season as an opportunity to strive to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Mt 6:33, NABRE).  It recognizes that the most important activity we can pursue in life is answering Jesus’ call to “Follow me” (John 1: 43, NABRE). And Lent is a time to tune-up our engine used to do that following.

In particular, Lent offers us the opportunity to intentionally tune up three aspects of our faith life: (1) prayer, (2) charity, and (3) appetites.

(1)  Prayer. The Catechism of the Catholic Church identifies three types of prayer: vocal, meditative, and contemplative. Vocal prayer is the prayer before meals, the morning offering, the prayer to St. Michael, the Rosary, etc. It includes the petitions for help and healing that we ask God for. This prayer is often one-directional, us speaking to God with humble and contrite hearts.

Meditative prayer is a dialogue between us and God. Using a Scripture passage, or a spiritual text (a saint’s biography, an encyclical, a homily, a devotional reflection, etc.) and bringing it into conversation with the Lord. Not only do we speak to God our questions and feelings and thoughts, but we allow quiet time for Him to respond. We listen with the ears of our heart for movements in our thoughts, in our feelings; ideas and insights and sensations come to us in those silent moments. Thus meditative prayer fosters prayer-as-relationship.

Contemplative prayer employs the same dynamic of presence between us and God, but without a “topic” to meditate on. It’s pure abiding in the Lord; it’s being intentionally present to the Lord with no goal other than to be with Him; for this we enter “[our] inner room, close the door, and pray to [God] in secret. And the Lord “who sees in secret will repay” us with the graces of His presence. (Mt 6:6).

An intentional Lent understands these three modes of prayer and makes time especially for the latter two – recognizing them as means to deepening one’s relationship with God. Abide in me, says the Lord – nurture your relationship with me in prayer:

“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” (John 15:4-9, NRSVCE)

(2)   Charity. Everything we have has been given to us, directly or indirectly, by God. If we point to the nice house we live in, it was (is being) paid for by the income we receive from using the gifts God has given us. If we point to our children, they are/were/always will be God’s before they were presented to us to take care of (the notion that God has no grandchildren, only children, recognizes this).

And so, to tune up our relationship with others we are called in Lent to see others as God’s children, and see their needs as our responsibility to address, and to see our own time, talent, and treasures as not ours to own, but as God’s gifts to us, to be shared with others.

“St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: ‘Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs’…’The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity.’ When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2446)

Want another reason to pay better attention to those in need and what they lack and to provide it for them? It’s a matter of (eternal) life and death, Jesus tells us in Matthew 25.

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come…inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ .… [For] whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For … what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Mt 25:34-46, NABRE)

Doing for others is doing for Jesus – again that two-fold relationship of loving God and others combines to form one ethic of life: extend help to those in need. Let us use the time of Lent to ask God to tune up our ability to see the need that’s out there, and to practice charity as a way of living out the command to love one another.

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you…. This I command you: love one another. “(John 15:13-17, NABRE)
 

(3)  Appetites. Many of my friends are engaged in the “Exodus 90” program during Lent. As its website explains:

“Through asceticism, we grow in the power to say “no” to the common things of the world that hold us back [from growing in faith]…. Asceticism is about saying “no” to lesser things so that we are able to say “yes” when God asks greater things from us. Though we should strive to reject evil in every instance, we should also abstain from good things for periods of time so that we can remain focused on what matters most in our lives.”

         This statement wonderfully explains the goal of the “fasting” aspect of Lent: to strengthen our ability to curb our appetites in small ways, so we can apply that strength to curb larger attractions. Exodus 90 suggests curbing the time spent using phones, TV, video games, internet surfing, as well as abstaining from alcohol, snacks, desserts, and meat on Wednesdays and Fridays. It encourages getting 8 hours of sleep, getting regular exercise, and listening only to uplifting music.

The goal of this asceticism and right living (my relationship with me) is to be free from blindly following our desires. To be – unlike St. Paul – able then to do the things we want to do, and avoid doing the things we don’t want to do. Our appetites and desires and addictions lead us astray because we are all weak (look up “concupiscence”).

         We are hard wired to want comfort, pleasure, fulfillment; moreover, we carry with us many wounds from our life experiences; and further, the enemy is always seeking to tempt us away from our relationship with the Lord. It is good, therefore, during Lent to exercise the muscle of restraint so we may not be led into temptation by the world, the flesh or the devil.  

This Lent, I invite us to give up Lent – the Lent as we have usually viewed it and as we have usually practiced it. Let us to forego the usual Lenten scramble for what to give up for Lent, just to check off that box, and give into the call to pursue deeper relationships – with God in prayer, with others in charity, with ourselves in fasting/asceticism to curb appetites.

Finally, let us give up Lent for Lent – for life! As we embrace Lent intentionally let us do so not just for a season but for the rest of our lives, that we may glorify God in all that we do.