Denial denial. I have a love hate relationship with Lent. On one hand, I have to give up a number of things that I like a lot. Always a bummer, always difficult. Then I have to do a lot of things that I may not enjoy so much. Bummer number two. Seems like a perfect reason to jump ship, at least to some of my friends. Why put up with all this silliness?

Well, a few reasons, I think.

Firstly. Life is often about doing things you don't want to, and usually about not getting what you want. One might say that my desires are probably misplaced (and they almost certainly are), but Lent, on a purely secular level, makes me better able to deal with life. So that's response number one.

Secondly. I think we could say that one of the purposes of Lent is to aid in prayer. True, there probably are people for whom the Good Friday fast is an impediment to concentrating on Christ's life, or on God in general. But for most people I think it helps, and even if the lack of food makes you irritable or disfunctional, I feel like it's one of these opportunities to offer it up to God.

Thirdly. Because the Church says so. There really are few things that Catholics do as a whole, when you think about it. Mass on Sundays. Sacraments. Other than that, we are in large part on our own. Something that cuts across the great East/West divide - quite valuable, in my opinion. Reminds you what you're in it for.

Hardly a meditation worthy of publishing, but I'm hoping that maybe looking at it you'll at least be inspired to think a little about what Lent means to you.

Labels: religion