Lent: Take Three

Three Lenten items, today, friends:

Giving Up Lent for Lent, by Diana Butler Bass is an odd piece of writing in that she makes the obvious point about how we need to let go of certain things to grow spiritually:

When we cling tightly to our own desires, we struggle and suffer. When we let go of these desires, God can move us toward deeper spiritual understanding and compassion.

Okay, but she learned this somehow from "giving up Lent for Lent a few years ago." How, I am not sure. I can see why someone might appreciate some new things from fresh angles and taking a new tack. But she was hardly giving up something like one of those desires she refers to above. Now a friend of hers did look forward to Lent, so it would have applied to him. But Lent for her:

Since Lent starts with a morbid reminder of human mortality – “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return” – I always wondered if [my friend] needed therapy more than ashes on his forehead. As Christmas faded into fond memory, I dreaded Lent’s approach. Only it stood between Easter and me. Forty days of guilt whenever I ate chocolate.

A few years ago, I stopped struggling with my bad attitude toward Lent. I gave up Lent for Lent. I skipped Ash Wednesday, made no promises to God, and instituted no rigorous prayer schedule. I wanted to enjoy one March with no onerous spiritual obligations.

It seems she was only giving up something onerous. Which is usually easy to do. Since God loves a cheerful giver, if you're grumbling through Lenten observances, it's probably best to give it a rest; talk to a spiritual advisor, too. (It's best not to go it entirely alone.)

When I gave up Lent for Lent, it become clear that I needed to give up the idea that certain religious disciplines would bring me closer to God.

This is true: A discipline won't bring you closer to God. Only God can bring you closer to Himself. What the discipline is meant to do is to help you get yourself, your ego, out of the way so you are open to His grace. I do believe in mortification by works: "Mortify your earthly members," writes Paul. It's not God's job to do that for me--thought sometimes we are mortified, or chastened, apart from our intentions. Anyway, it's a bit confusing, but you might recognize a struggle or question in there of your own, if not good answers.

Another blog, Gethsemane, by Canadian writer David Warren (thank you, Joseph Letendre), is much more helpfully Lenten. He embraces what seems to me to be the true spirit of Lent:

There are sobering features in the season of Lent, in the forty days and nights of Christ’s wandering in the wilderness, and in commemorating a path that can only lead from Ash Wednesday, through Gethsemane. To the Christian view, that is earthly life. The fact of our own death is before us, and the reality of the Crucifixion can never be dismissed. We offer, “blood, toil, tears, and sweat,” together with the joy of salvation. Only through that portal, only in the knowledge that “we owe a death”, can we glimpse an eternity that is not false. This is written in the very words of the Lord’s Prayer, uttered daily by every Christian. In praying, “Thy will be done,” we’re inevitably praying for a good death. And not necessarily for a painless one.

I recommend the whole article. He doesn't miss the joy, either, by the way. We Orthodox call it the "bright sadness" of the fast before Pascha.

And finally, this is a bit off the usual track, but Bobby Winters wrote me:

Last night I went to the worst Ash Wednesday service I’ve been to since I started attending. This link would’ve been better.

It's Johnny Cash's Hurt.

Comments

[Little Gidding]

Or, then there's giving up Christ for Christ, as with Flannery O'Connor's woebegone Haze Motes, preacher of "the Church of Christ Without Christ."

[Ethan Cordray]

I'd never thought before of singing that song as addressed to Christ. It mostly works, and works very well.

[James A. Altena]

I think that what Diana Bass is aiming at (albeit in a much more wordy fashion) is the frequent admonishment of my pastor, Fr. Ousley: "The Christian life is not about accomplishment, but about faithfulness." Diana's previous error was in viewing Lent in terms of accomplishment -- successfully fulfill this discipline, and you will draw closer to God. Jim Kushiner of course provides the right understanding instead.

Less seriously, with my contrarian sense of humor, in various years I have proposed the following "disciplines" for myself --

- giving up Lent for Lent
- giving up Christianity for Lent
- giving up giving up for Lent
- giving up faith, hope, and charity for Lent
- giving up poverty, chastity, and obedience for Lent

This year, I've been inspired by the (true) story I was told of an EO monk of a non-canonical rigorist sect who called canonical EOs "heretics" because they bathe regularly, whereas he had run across some obscure early canon mandating that the faithful bathe only once a year.

So, I'm giving up hygiene for Lent. :-)

[Michael Martin]

Bass exemplifies the problem with MFA programs--passing off cleverness as wisdom. No wonder the arts are in such lousy shape.

[HM Hauser]

I read the whole Bass article. Its cutesy language, ("giving up Lent for Lent"), introduction of Buddhists as superior in some respect to Christians, and general put down of traditional disciplines only left me with one impression - "She must be Episcopalian". And guess what?
I know, I should give up snark for Lent.

[Bill R]

"So, I'm giving up hygiene for Lent. :-)"

Then I suppose it's a divine mercy, James, that we live on opposite ends of the country! '-)

[James A. Altena]

Don't worry, Bill, I'm putting it in a box and sending it to you. . . .

[bearing]

Did I read that right --- did she say that Lent is about, among other things, embracing sin?

[John P]

Vegan (dark) chocolate is better than milk chocolate anyway.