Giving it up
Maggi Dawn is writing a series of articles this week on the history and meaning of Lent, which I thoroughly recommend. One in particular has caught my eye for its emphasis on three aspects of the Lenten fast – it was uniform (applying to everyone), it was about giving up essentials (not luxuries) and it was concerned with social justice.
The uniformity of Lent is important because it reminds us that we are all in it together; none of us is exempt, none lives in isolation. This has effects on the discussion on guilt I’ve been having with Kathryn, because it reminds us that we are community, a body, not isolated individuals. We do not deal with our failings by ourselves but should rely on others both to help us deal with them and to show us that our failings are not unique, either. We are all sick and in need of healing.
The fact that Lent was about giving up essentials, not luxuries, speaks of our human frailty. Lent was not about doing without our caffeine fix, or our alcohol, or chocolate. No – Lent was about doing without meat, leaving us with only vegetables and bread. This is the aspect that leads to seeing Lent as a “wilderness” time, because it is where our bodies make their presence known in our religion – our mortal, frail, glorious bodies. Christianity isn’t a “spiritual” religion but a holistic one – that is, it isn’t concerned only with our spirits, with heaven, with life after death; no, it’s concerned with what we actually do, with the whole of our complicated selves, with the created world in which we live.
And this is where it blends into the third aspect that Maggi draws out – social justice. The origin of this was that the money saved by fasting (eating less and not eating meat) was to be given to the poor. In our world now, however, we can hopefully see more than this. As a holistic religion, Christianity calls us to involvement in the world around us, to help our neighbour, to aid the widow and orphan, to go the extra mile.
During Lent, this focus on social justice is even nearer the surface than usual, because we are in the wilderness ourselves – and the wilderness is a dangerous place. At this time, perhaps we should feel closer to those who live in the physically dangerous places of our world, have more empathy for those who eat less not because they choose to but because they have no more to eat, to those who are suffering from war and natural disaster, and be more aware of our common humanity, our common calling, our common love from the Creator of us all.
pax et bonum
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