At
the end of winter each year, Catholics prepare for Easter with a season
called Lent. By many modern day standards, lent is somewhat
paradoxical- about giving away rather than getting; about your happiness
rather than mine. It's not "Make America Great Again" but "Make America
Good Again". It's not "Have it your way" Burger King style; but rather,
don't be so worried if someone puts "GASP" an onion on your burger.
Lent
starts with Ash Wednesday- the ultimate humility lesson. We proceed
forward and the priest or a congregation member draws the sign of the
cross on our foreheads, stating "Remember you are dust, and to dust you
will return". This phrase is humility in its essence. If we were smack
talking while playing basketball, this is the equivalent of "You an't
all that". God tells us this in a loving way. We are reminded in this
scripture passage of the Genesis' creation account, where God forms Adam
out of clay. The essence behind it is that we are creatures, created by
a loving God. Our existence depends on Him who created us. We cannot
create new life on our own, nor can we will our own existence or
even survival, no matter how many protein shakes we slurp or quinoa
salads we crunch. Humility literally means "down or of the earth". We
are organic beings at our core. No matter how mighty we try to rise, we
need to recognize this, and recognize the humanity of others sharing the
earth with us, as well.
This biblical passage from Genesis is a quote from God: "Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return". God tells this to Adam and Eve in the garden right after the fall (Genesis 6). This passage reminds us that as humans, we have the tendency to make mistakes. No matter our best intentions, we wind up messing up, screwing up, putting someone down, losing our temper, falling into temptation, picking a fight, or glorifying ourselves, to name a few of the possibilities. This concept is known to Catholics as Original Sin. And it is perfectly normal and natural! Paradoxically, Christ reminds is that this is both normal and natural, but also that we are called to do better. Sin is in our default programming, but Christ rewrote the code to allow us to have an operating system that actually works! Weekly, monthly (or yearly!) partaking in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (AKA Confession) is the antivirus software He runs to keep us functioning in a state of grace. If you are not Catholic, then I would recommend personal repentance to the Lord, who is infinitely merciful.
Even
though we are reminded of our organic nature by Ash Wednesday, Lent at the same time
reminds us that we are more. At its heart, Lent is a time that reminds
us that we cannot be satisfied solely by the stuff of this world- "I can
only rest when I rest in you". We are born to seek. We are born for higher fulfillment- a desire that always directs us towards God. This means that although we are "of the earth" in our very nature, our soul hungers for more. We can see this time and again in
our consumer society. If getting "stuff" truly satisfied us, those with
more "stuff" would be more satisfied and those who had less would
automatically be less satisfied. I get the sense that greed is the
disordered passion for finding something that satisfies, that sets us on
a path to desire more and more earthly goods. But nothing of this earth
can satisfy, which is why we see many well-to-do people so thoroughly
unsatisfied. Lent turns the equation on its ear. Lent's new equation- Stuff + Stuff ≠ Happiness. By giving up something material, we realize that we didn't need it or want it to begin with. Lent reminds us we don't
need this stuff, really. Lent is all about cleaning out the closet.
