For Lent

Perhaps my playground was a little odd, or maybe it was longer ago than I care to admit, but a common question was, “what are you giving up for Lent?”

The usual answers were given, like chocolate or potato chips. Things that weren’t as seemingly as plentiful as they are today. We never indulged in those things on a daily basis anyway. We were too young for coffee, but some of us might have said we were giving up soda pop. Again, something that wasn’t available to us every day anyway.

It wasn’t until I was much older that I began to understand the ancient practice of giving something up for Lent as a spiritual practice. Although I understood the benefits of giving up something that was bad for me anyway, the Lenten practice isn’t a self-help program to improve health. Those sorts of things I could (and probably should) do any time of year. The question has become, what should I do for Lent that will benefit my spiritual journey?

In high school, I had a friend who gave up eating at McDonalds during Lent. I challenged him on whether this was a spiritual practice or just a healthy choice for him. He said that the money he would have spent on Big Macs he gave to his Church. That information told me two things: first, he went to Church; and second, he prayed. I congratulated him and might even have shaken his hand. The next Sunday I went to Church to learn more about the spiritual journey we are all on.

That Sunday I heard that Lent is not just about giving things up, it is also about taking things on, so that we can free up our wasted time to delve more deeply on the thing that matters most, our relationship with the Divine.

That puzzled me for quite some time: how does taking things on free up time?

Within a year I was studying Moses Coady, the Roman Catholic priest heavily involved in the Antigonish Movement. He was asked how he manages to do so much in a day. He said that he begins every day by presiding at Communion. Often it was just him and his secretary, but it was the thing that gave him the energy to do all he did. It was the thing that put his life and ministry into the context of God’s will be done. That’s why we have a Lenten season.