God's Sigh, Lenten Legalism, and Health of the Body
This week's readings reveal weariness in our Lord. When the pharisees argued with Jesus, "He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, 'Why does this generation seek a sign?'"
"... Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?" Mk 8
His exasperation touches me. How many times have a sighed after my children? And how often as a daughter have I drawn that sigh from the lips of my Lord? He gives me breath for that sigh of relentless love, and it is His Divine aspiration which changes everything. It is Lent. He is sighing. It is time to be moved.
Out of my own weariness, almost too tired to move...
It occurs to me again that Lent is not about making idols of our own offerings, but about allowing God to smash the chains which bind us and move us into our liberation.
Our sigh is air from our lungs. God’s sigh is His holy substance. His Word. The breath of His sigh is powerful enough to beget all things… and surely can bring us back to life.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel used to talk about the tendency of Christians to feed on the drama of suffering; to become attached to it and fancy ourselves holy because we sit in darkness clutching rosaries.
But the goal of Lent is not to collect pats on our pious backs. It is to allow God to smash the idols so that we can replace them with Him alone. Intimacy.
Giving up stuff is a small nod to what should be happening in the movement of soul. Breaking chains which prevent us from making our lives a gift of praise. Lent is a planting like a seed in the ground which comes alive and accelerates with marvelous strength until it bursts through whatever is keeping it down.
I’ve seen plants grow straight through concrete, blacktop, and rock. Lent is about that bursting… but first the waiting, the growing smaller, and the strengthening by the power of Christ.
Jesus was weary with the Pharisees and disciples. Caught up in concerns about signs and provision, they were missing the point. He is weary, no doubt, with our own dullness. And yet...
Lent is here. We are hungering. And it is time to come alive.
Breath on us, Lord, with Your holy sigh.
WHEN THE RULE COMES INTO CONFLICT WITH HEALING
Hint: It doesn’t.
If you’re pregnant, nursing, or sick (this can include chronic illness and serious injury), you are dispensed from traditional fast and abstinence. If that makes you feel guilty, remember that every Friday during Lent in parishes across the country, people who love fish and fried food throw themselves a party with Father’s blessing.
Discipline your bodies and minds, friends. But be well!
Both the lukewarm and the fervent can fall into legalism (one to find loopholes and the other in scrupulosity) and there can be a place in both that stumbles over the apparent inconsistency and tension of the law… or into judgement of others.
The great news is that the Church provides solid ground by saying:
1) This is the rule: Fast and abstain.
2) But if you need to eat, eat.
So the spirit of the law is rooted in love and order, not in randomly assigned difficulties. Lent is about intimacy with Christ and fast and abstinence are not designed to make this more difficult, but less so.
SHROVE TUESDAY OR FAT TUESDAY?
Fat Tuesday is not a liturgical observance but a cultural one. It is also known as Shrove Tuesday, with shrive meaning to absolve. It has traditionally been a day to prepare for a season of penitence by examining the conscience to prepare for the spiritual work of Lent. It is also the day when churches burn the previous year’s palms, which in turn become ashes used on Ash Wednesday.
Most of us know the history behind the “fat” part. Catholics have traditionally thrown one last hurrah before the penitential season by eating foods that would be used less (or not at all) during Lent. Combined with the secular celebration of Mardi Gras (French for Fat Tuesday), it is often celebrated as a day of extreme indulgence.
There’s nothing wrong with saying farewell to ordinary time with a joyful party! But there are some things we might want to think about moving into the fasting days of Lent…
HOW NOT TO STAY MISERABLY FOOD-ATTACHED DURING LENT
Minimize the junk.
Eat protein-rich meals.
Eat real food.
Every day.
Especially days before a fast.
Perhaps I’ll sound like a Lenten killjoy here but it’s only because I love you…
The thing not to do on Mardi Gras is to stuff yourself with junk food before a day of fasting, leaving your body to sort out insulin chaos, inflammatory cascade, and trying to find energy (maybe from the substance of your bones and muscles).
Maybe in the proper spirit of the thing, we should consider Tuesday as preparatory for a good Wednesday, where we are not unwell, cranky, or crashing our immune and metabolic function.
If you already have done it, don’t be anxious about it! But pay attention to your body and take care of it through the season, especially before days of fasting and abstinence. The Church doesn’t make laws to harm but to make us well. (I wrote a little about this in my last substack)
In ages past, Fat Tuesday was the day when people ate up their nourishing higher calorie foods, along with their sugar. Modern Catholics are not the same! Even on our fasted days we eat more junk (via seed oils, sugars, and useless foods) than our forebears ever did. We eat like kings every day, and consequently get the same diseases of the overindulged… while at the same time adding diseases of the malnourished in third world nations.
Our Mardi Gras celebrations, followed by fasting, can leave us with an inclination to binge... then back into a fasted Friday and indulgent Sunday for another round of wreck-the-metabolic-function-and-feel-like-garbage. It doesn’t have to be that way.
LENTEN FASTING ISN’T THE PROBLEM
The fasting itself isn't a problem. The problem is that we generally don't have any idea how and what to eat to maintain strong bodies and reasonably good health.
We don't know how to properly fast because we don't know how to properly nourish. One real spiritual danger of this fact is that Church laws can start to look random and ridiculous to people who can technically eat the most marvelous comfort foods even on days of fast and abstinence (fish fries!) ... all while staying sick and metabolically damaged.
If we have a disordered view of the body, food, and the land, then we actually become less equipped for service during Lent, not more. And we also begin to see Church laws as foolish and easily (but legally) circumnavigated.
I get messages and emails constantly from Catholics in the prime of life who are SICK and desperate. Sometimes it seems like everyone is sick. I can't pretend I don't know and that I don't know at least some components of the problem. Those problems are particularly highlighted for me during Lent.
The spirit of the Lenten fast is something beyond periodic sprints through hungry days. Much deeper and more wholesome and life changing. And we're missing it and coming out sicker on the other side.
Again… it doesn’t have to be that way. Lent is for making the path to intimacy with Christ easier, not harder.
FASTING FROM SOCIAL MEDIA (OR NOT)
Odd as it sounds, I’m not only staying on the social media for Lent, but I plan to increase my use. To be fair, I have been relatively inactive on most platforms so going from almost nothing to something isn’t that shocking. But it is different from what many are doing. Brooke Taylor and I discussed it recently on Relevant Radio here:
In the broadcast, Brooke referenced an article I wrote on the topic last year. You can read that here:
False Worship in the Metaverse
The summary of my view is that, regardless of whether we stay or leave social media for Lent, our choice should result in CHANGE. By the end of Lent, we should be changed and more deeply conformed to the heart of Christ. Can we do that online? Yes. Can we leave social media to become better people and come back unchanged? Also yes.
Alright… I’m heading into earnest Lenten home preparations for what remains of Shrove Tuesday. I’ve never made a king cake and, judging by the time, am not likely to fit one in. However, we already have a good start on the mortification aspect of Lent with an apparent stomach bug. That means some of us may or may not be at church on Ash Wednesday. As always, the best laid plans succumb to what God allows!
I’ll be printing out this PDF Lenten calendar for my kids (and me) today from Quis Ut Deus Press. (They have a Byzantine Great Fast version as well) Print it HERE. And you can find her on Instagram @thefigandthimble
I pray that we can all enter in to that very raw space of real life Lent with true surrender. To be changed…
In His time. In His way. For His glory. Deo Gratias!
Melody
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