Lent as a part of your life
Anna Barbour
Get a Life
"Life is like a box of chocolates." Well maybe, sort of, I guess, except that you can poke the bottom of the chocolates and see what is in the center and you cannot normally do that with life. I usually look for the raspberry or coconut centers myself; I have a technique so that unless you check, you cannot tell if a piece has been tampered with. You cannot tamper with life like I do with chocolate; you can't get something for nothing in the game of life; you rarely, as they say, have your cake and eat it too — in life, you pay the piper and reap what you sow.
Well, speaking of life, Lent is upon us once again. Lent and life, they both start with "L;" it works; bear with me. Who is not excited about Lent? Let me tell you who is not excited. You are not excited. And why are you not excited about the season of the liturgical year that marks the passing of the catechumen to rebirth in the life of Christ, the special season that was intended to initiate baptismal candidates, purifying them for the joyous Easter period? You are not excited because you watch too much television.
Oh, the theory that has television at the root of Lenten inattention (and other compounded evils) is certainly a wild-type hypothesis at this point. People can be disenchanted about Lent for a variety of reasons. One reason being the modern superpower's complete lack of understanding for what it means to go without stuff. When a family owns an SUV for each parent and an F-150 truck for one of its two children, Lent is not going to be very exciting for it. When a group of friends goes to, say, Reckers and assumes it need not throw away its trash (perhaps because it assumes people who are not receiving tips enjoy cleaning up after stupid students), the magic of Lent must be lost on this group. And you have got to love those people who let fall willy-nilly beer cans as soon as all the liquid is swallowed down (because, I guess, nature makes a good trash can), those people really do not have much interest in Lent or Lenten practices.
Lent is exciting for only certain people. At this point, I should like to state that Lenten observance is still very much an obligation for Christians, that the views henceforth stated are my own, that if you consider your religion seriously it behooves you to look into Lent.
Lent is the time to review your life thus far, to make some payments on that tab you've been running up at the big bar of life. Times, they are a changing though; Lent is becoming very vague. Who knows why we do what we do? How do we practice Lent now? Why do we not eat meat? The ordinary rule on fasting days, beginning in the second century, was to take but one meal a day and that only in the evening, while meat and, in the early centuries, wine were entirely forbidden. Yes, wine.
Now, what do we do? Give up eating mainly cows, pork and chicken on Friday and if truly dedicated, give up something everyday that is a bad habit (but not too bad because then it gets rough); we do this between a most exciting and festive Mardi Gras/Carnaval atmosphere and the celebration of Easter.
Mardi Gras is a fun time especially if you live in New Orleans or some place that knows how to do Carnaval right. At that mystical, magical time and you're suppose to lose your inhibitions, you're suppose to become like the Hyde of Jekyll and Hyde.
Why in the name of the holiest of holies would any God-fearing religion allow such unseemliness to occur? Well, first off, it's not every religion that does a Carnaval like Catholicism, at least in my unbiased Catholic perspective that is. And the Church has repeatedly attempted to curb the excesses of the week before Lent, but like any Yin, there has to be a Yang. Hence, if you are going to celebrate Carnaval to its fullest (O'Neill Family Hall), then it is only fair to observe and celebrate Lent to its fullest.
Mardi Gras must be regarded as the clearing away of base tendencies so that one can prepare for change. The Lenten season then signifies that preparing period. Lent has its origins in the Gospel accounts of Christ's 40 day temptation in the wilderness but has also been subject to much change especially as to its length and fasting regulations. Lent has always been considered a time of preparation for baptism, for the reconciliation of penitents and a season of recollection, inviting all people back to their baptismal foundation in Christ. A conception of the essence of this preparation period is that Lent is to be when you give up what you think you need, putting your trust in something greater than you.
The less you have, the more free you are, you know. True freedom exists in the ability to live without the necessary. If I did not need to sleep, imagine how much I could get done or if I did not need air, imagine where I could go. If the abandonment of a big necessary can provide so much freedom, imagine what even abandonment of smaller necessaries can do. I gave up chocolate one year; it was hard, but not too hard since I ate all manner of vanilla based items. I have a feeling a missed the point that year.
It is quite painful actually to give up something you have come to feel as necessary, which is possibly why Lent is losing its vigor. Who wants to do anything painful? While it is quite possible to give up food for days, weeks, even months, it is quite painful to give up food for 24 hours. While it is difficult to go without, how often can you say you experience real joy with food especially if you complain about the dining hall? But if you can be free of something like the necessity of food, imagine it. My god, you won't have tasted a dining hall burger so scrumptious in your life as one eaten right after Lent is over.
Anna Barbour is a junior theology and pre-med major. Her column appears every other Monday.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, February 26, 2001
