(Editor’s note: Columns often contain opinion, and those opinions belong to their author.)
So, what are you giving up for Lent? Lent is one of those weird words we Christians toss around, like everyone knows what we’re talking about (news break – they don’t). And it’s an even weirder season.
Lent is a 40-day period before Easter. It’s a time of self-examination and repentance, of prayer, fasting, and self-denial. Not exactly a crowd-pleaser. Lent can be a hard sell for people.
Everyone can get into the spirit of Christmas. Who doesn’t like holiday lights and decorations, exchanging gifts and partying with friends and family? You don’t even have to be part of the Christian faith to enjoy the festive season!
Watch any Hallmark Christmas movie – one of my guilty pleasures – and you will be hard pressed to find any mention of Jesus. What you will find are two Incredibly Attractive People who, strangely enough, are single. He’s from the Big City. She’s from a Small Town. He wants to tear down the bookstore that has been in her family for years.
They don’t like each other. They fight. She says he doesn’t have a heart. But then the magic of Christmas takes over “and what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.
By the end of the movie, the two Incredibly Attractive People discover true love amidst all the Christmas decorations and get to kiss in the final scene. The bookstore is saved! Who in Whoville doesn’t like a happy ending?
But Lent is different. Before we get into the ultimate happy ending, which is Easter, we are asked to go through a season of reflection and prayers. And, through self-denial, we are asked to give up something for Lent. That’s where the question, “What are you giving up for Lent?” comes in.
If you ask around, my guess is that people will tell you they are giving up chocolate for Lent. The extremists among us may say that they are giving up beer or wine. These days the extraordinarily devout will give up social media, but that may be taking things a bit too far.
One year I gave up coffee for Lent. I lasted two days. Lenten disciplines, like New Year’s resolutions, don’t always last.
In the Book of Common Prayer, there is a Litany of Penitence used on Ash Wednesday. That is my jumping off point for Lent. In the litany we confess the “pride, hypocrisy and impatience of our lives…our self-indulgent appetites and ways…our blindness to human need and suffering and our indifference to injustice and cruelty.” When we lean into these words, we realize that we’re being asked to do something harder than giving up chocolate. We’re being asked to change.
In anticipation of Lent, Pope Leo XIV urged people to “disarm their words that wound.” As reported in the Catholic Register on Feb. 13 of this year, the pope proposed “a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor.”
“Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgment, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves…Instead, let us strive to measure our words and cultivate kindness and respect in our families, among our friends, at work, on social media, in political debates, in the media and in Christian communities.”
“In this way, words of hatred will give way to words of hope and peace.”
This was much the same message of the Buddhist monks on the Walk for Peace. Practicing loving kindness towards ourselves and others as the way to peace. It’s the way of Jesus, who asked us to love our neighbor as ourselves. I think we’ve forgotten that.
So, what if this year for Lent, we give up words that hurt. Social media that hurts. Texts that hurt. Instead, what if we shared loving kindness? It doesn’t mean we have to agree with everyone. We don’t. But neither do we have to comment on everything that passes beneath our eyes.
This Lent we can begin training ourselves to refrain from “our self-indulgent appetites and ways…our blindness to human need and suffering and our indifference to injustice and cruelty.” Refrain from eating chocolate if you want but refrain from words that wound if you want to change the world.
The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Taylor, is a retired Episcopal Priest and full-time animal lover. She volunteers with her corgi, Zelda, who is a therapy dog.
Augusta Good News, an award-winning member of the Georgia Press Association, is a local, digital newspaper. Subscribe to the free weekly Augusta Good News’ newsletter here.
