Lent - Day 5

       I'd like to tell you about my friend Bob. Bob is an aged man now, but many years ago before retirement he owned and ran a rather successful plumbing supply company.  In his younger days of course the business struggled. After a long day of work at the counter, he'd spend many hours working on the books, accounts, etc.  It was not uncommon for him to work past midnight and wake again early to greet the morning plumbers starting their own days. On Saturday nights though, Bob was almost always in a hurry to get home before midnight. His wife would have his dinner ready, even at that hour, even with the kids long gone to sleep.  Bob would almost wolf down his food but there were many times he would have his meal cut short. As a devout Roman Catholic, he had to fast for Communion on Sunday morning and at precisely 12:00 am, Bob would cease eating his meal and settle into his bedtime routine.  I find it hard to believe that anyone would a) be that faithful and b) that the rules were so archaic and unbending.

          Then you come to my somewhat tiny island on which I live.  There is a rather large Irish population having at one time been a reception center for immigrants.  Having been raised Roman Catholic myself, I was as aware of the fasting rules and rubrics as Bob was.  Fasting and eating Mrs. Paul's Fish sticks with macaroni and cheese on Fridays seemed standard fare in our house.  At some point such strictures were loosened and fasting was limited to Lent. But what of that Friday which invariably occurred when Saint Patricks Day fell on a Friday in Lent? Ahh, the good Bishop was quick to release everyone from any fast that would prevent the faithful from having their beloved Corned Beef.  Heaven forbid.

Heaven forbid indeed!

          Like so many things in our lives of faith, there are a multitude of man made strictures, rules and rubrics, acts of piety that when ignored have been used to restrain, contain and condemn the faithful. Everything from being ostracized, "you're going to hell" ( usually in a hand basket ) and the proclamation that you've committed a mortal sin.

         I once worked with a Deacon who had a myriad of personal acts of piety of his own that he taught generations of faithful from the altar. These faithful sheep had no way to know that so many of their actions were simply the Deacon's idea, or belief that these actions would make himself holier.

      As we deepen into our Lenten journey, I am going to suggest that we look at what makes you feel holy and what indeed does make you holier and whole.  Simple tasks like dipping your hands in holy water and making the sign of the cross does not in fact make you holier or whole. When done with proper knowledge, intent and understanding it can be a way to deepen our faith and help us enter into a proper mindset for worship.

        What makes you feel holy? What actions do you do that helps you enter into our worlds of worship, thin spaces if you will? If we were to set up our own rules and rubrics, our own personal acts of piety, what would they be if you or I set them up? What works for you? Lent is all about being fully human and entering into the journey of faith. Let all we do make that deeper and more meaningful.

Mark 2:18-22

 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’