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Lent, the 40-day journey toward Easter, began on Wednesday. Chances are, you saw a friend or coworker with a cross of ashes on his or her forehead or tasted paczki, Polish doughnuts eaten on Fat Tuesday. Even the religiously ambivalent find themselves observing Lent, if only as a way of dieting: Ask most people what they’re giving up for Lent, and the response is almost always “chocolate.”
So, yes, my assumption is that most of us in our community are practicing Lent – and if not practicing it, are at least aware of it. Yet, to even the most religiously committed, Lent’s true meaning is lost.
Lent, as we know it, began with fasting on the Friday and Saturday before Easter; sometime in the first 500 years of Christianity, the fast extended to 40 days. Rich foods were kicked out of the house and replaced with meager meals for the 40-day journey. In today’s common practice, folks will choose to forego sweets, like ice cream, or other delicacies, like alcohol. In some traditions, meat isn’t eaten on Fridays – thus the advent of the ever-delicious pepper and egg sandwich.
Yet, if Lent becomes a season known only for what is given up, we miss the real meaning of Lent. Historically, Lent wasn’t just a season of fasting, it was also a season of prayer and of almsgiving – that is, acts of charity and generosity toward those in need.
It’s not surprising that in the American consumeristic mind, Lent is about a “giving up” only, instead of also a “taking on.” To the American psyche, giving up chocolate or another delicacy (read: most of the American diet) is a significant sacrifice; to the rest of the globe, and to some of the more financially challenged members of our community, that’s just, well, every day.
In fact, what we “take on” in Lent is quite possibly even more important than what we “give up.” Because “giving up” only keeps Lent about us and us only instead of propelling us out, beyond ourselves, through a “taking on.”
Lent is a journey that leads to Easter, a holiday muddled by bunnies and pastels but that is ultimately about the triumph of Hope and the victory of the good for every person in every place at every time in history. It’s a holiday that’s for all of us, especially the least, the last and the lost.
Failure to embody Lent in a way that serves someone else is an offense to the very idea of the season. Lent exists to get us out of our comfort zones for a deeper experience of our humanity, felt first in the cravings for that thing we’ve given up and then felt more as we serve others in need.
This Lent, whether you’re faithful or faithless (or somewhere in between) use these 40 days to make someone else’s life better. Give a generous donation to a food pantry. Show up at one of a dozen organizations that feed those in need and plate up some food, or do yourself one better and enjoy a meal with those in need. Empty the stinky garbage in your office. Buy your staff lunch.
In any case, remember that what you give up this Lent is made more meaningful by what you take on. In doing so, we become living, breathing paczkis, sweetening the lives of those who know us and are known by us.
Write to Kyle Tennant at columns@tribtoday.com.