Giving things up.
On Ash Wednesday at Mass the Gospel passage which is read is Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18, the part of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus tells his listeners that when they give alms, pray, and fast, they are not to make a big show of it to win acclaim. He says "when" they do these things, not "if" they do them. So, as I noted last year, these three elements of every Christian's life are given special emphasis during Lent.
The element of fasting has been given special emphasis over the years, with elaborate rules in the Catholic Church about how much could be eaten — one full meal per day, with two smaller meals totalling less than a full meal, and no eating between meals — and what could be eaten — meat only at the full meal, and not at all on Ash Wednesday and Fridays.
The idea was that it would be good to go beyond the legal minimum and fast from other things — maybe a food one liked such as candy, or maybe an activity one enjoyed, such as watching television (or a certain show), or maybe something else, like booze or cigarettes or going to movies. In other words, giving things up for Lent is a way of "fasting," which, along with prayer and almsgiving is part of Christian living.
But why Lent?
Lent began as the final period of intensive preparation for those who were becoming Christians. They would be baptized by the bishop at Easter, so they and their sponsors had to be sure they were ready — that they could both talk the talk and walk the walk. In time Easter came to include not only the baptism of the new Christians but also the renewal of their commitment by existing Christians, and they too prepared for it with this period of heightened practice of their calling.
The primary fast, some early writers noted, is fasting from sin, since freedom from sin is at the heart of our calling. But whether it is training ourselves to give up something wrong, voluntary fasting from something legitimate, additional prayer, additional giving to charity, or better still, all of the above — and all these things are possible only through God's grace — what we do in Lent helps us be better Christians and should prepare us once more to celebrate the saving death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter, a saving work into which we were joined by our baptism.
I hope all my Christian readers (and anyone else who wants to give it a try) have a good Lent.
An der Grabstätte von Kronprinzessin Cecilie
1 week ago
3 comments:
when you can come by my blog check out the post and give me your thoughts.
i think ive gave enough up so im not giving nothing up!
naturgesetz!
So what are you giving up, sir?
-Dean
@ Ryan — Thanks for stopping by. I've responded to your recent posts — don't know if you'll like it, but it's how I see it.
@ Dean Grey — Thanks for the visit. I was beginning to be afraid nobody would ask. Basically I'm giving up eating between meals and having meat at lunch or on Fridays. IOW, it's the old fasting and abstinence rules. So no cold cut sandwiches for lunch, no snacks of chips and sliced cheese product (which is a biggie for me — i'd gotten accustomed to nibbling on them two or three times a day). Also I'm giving up visiting the websites/blogs whose purpose is to post pictures or videos of naked guys. I don't mean people who tell about their doings and spice it up with a picture. I mean the ones where there is nothing but the pictures or videos in the normal posts.
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