‘I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word’ (BCP 265).
Today, Ash Wednesday, begins the season of Lent. For the next forty days, excluding Sundays, we are called to a period of self-examination and repentance and reading and inwardly digesting the Holy Scriptures. One of my earliest memories of Ash Wednesday, and more broadly season of Lent, is taken from my early elementary-school days. Inevitably, the kids in my class would begin asking “What are you giving up for Lent?” “Chocolate”, “being rude to others”, and, in jest (most of the time) “homework” topped the list. Almost as inevitably, about half way through Lent someone would say, “You’re not fasting! You said you gave up chocolate, and I saw you eat a piece of Chocolate.” Laughs would be exchanged and before long our Lenten disciplines had gone the way of a myriad other hollow promises.
Observing Lent is not a childhood game of who can give up something the longest. Observing Lent is a spiritual discipline that guides us into a deeper relationship with God and a more mature understanding of ourselves.
In the reading from the gospel according to Matthew (6:1-6, 16-21) appointed for Ash Wednesday, Jesus offers sage advice for one seeking to begin and continue a spiritual discipline. At the heart of today’s passage from Matthew is Jesus calling us into a close relationship with God that is exclusively between us and God. We are called to not hamper our spiritual discipline by flaunting it before others. No, we are to engage in a spiritual relationship for the benefits we will receive by our close interaction with God. Once we have had that close interaction with God, then we are more prepared to take what we have gleaned from this experience and somehow seek to take that into the world. All the while remembering and recalling that we do this for God and a deeper understanding of our self not because Lent is a fun game to see what and for how long we can engage in some sort of self sacrifice.
We are called to observe a holy Lent. Who knows how we will grow: that is between God and each one of us individually.
1 comment:
This touches on the dilemma that I was having in trying to decide on what to give up for Lent this year. I decided on a "personal" item that was more of a "How can I become a better, more Christian person?"-type of idea, but struggled with how I would police myself (for lack of a better word). It was also something that I didn't want to share with the world when asked, inevitably, "What did you give up for Lent?" So this year I have two items...a personal, difficult to enforce one, and a public, easy to monitor one (giving up swearing, for what it's worth). Your entry really drove home to me the importance of the personal one. Thank you!
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