A Holy Lent
For those of you who are not familiar with the Catholic-based forms of Christianity, this past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the season of Lent. This is a penitential season, where people are called on to fast, pray, and generally be reflective about their lives and their relationship with God. It is also, oddly, one of my favorite seasons in the church. There is something refreshing about dedicating yourself for 40 days to exploring and understanding the non-physical side of yourself and the world around you. At the end I always feel more connected to myself and more grounded, ready for the new birth of the world.
People who don't know me well are often surprised to find out that I am fairly religious person. Apparently, there is still a prevailing belief in our society that one cannot be both an intellectual and religious at the same time, C.S. Lewis's efforts notwithstanding. This is a relatively new phenomenon however. For millenia the only place one could find intellectuals was in the church. The idea was that by pursuing science and reason we would come closer to understanding our relationship to God. Personally, I still find that to be true. I think it's highly unfortunate that so many do not.
This attitude seems to owe its origins to thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx and Bertrand Russell; all who saw the way that religion was turned away from its original purpose of increasing human understanding of those things which were and continue to be mysterious, and instead towards controlling and marginalizing unsavory elements of the population. The irony being that Christianity when taken seriously actually supports those very things that these thinkers also supported. Jesus was an extreme advocate for the poor and the oppressed, just as Marx was. The message we get from the New Testament is that being human is good-- so good that even God shares in it-- just as Nietzsche would like us to think. And finally, Paul calls us to a life where when fulfilled we shall see not as "through a glass, darkly", but face to face with Truth. Russell surely would have loved the clarity and revelation such a meeting would give. So while the abuse of human spirituality by tyrants and oppressors is a terrible thing that continues to this day, it is not worth throwing out the entire enterprise for. There are many things that continue to puzzle and astound us, and I personally find it much more rewarding to stand back in awe of the vastness and complexity of life rather than attempt to pigeonhole it into some incomplete theory that we have the arrogance to suppose is absolute fact.
That's not to say that we shouldn't ask the questions of course. In fact, that sort of an investigation into the very meaning of life itself is what I believe we are called to do in Lent. While fasting may have been traded in for "giving things up," that doesn't make the process any less worthwhile. For example, I usually give up candy for Lent. While that may seem like a silly and simple thing to do, given that I normally eat some sort of candy throughout the day it serves as strong reminder to me every time I reach for the candy bowl that I am about something else right now. By denying that urge that I normally placate, I give myself the opportunity to reflect on what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.
Some people have asked me why I buy into the backstory and apparently irrational aspects of the Christian faith, when I could get the same sort of reflection and insight without the baggage by practicing Buddhism or Taoism. The truth is that I like the backstory. I always find more and more meaning in the stories of Jesus and the letters of Paul every time I read them. Not only that, but just as the Buddhists usually have some framework for their meditation, the Anglican service has always been a good framework for me to think, meditate, pray, sing and reflect on all these things.
This is usually the point where they press me on specific points. For example, I aver every week that Jesus was "born of the virgin Mary." How can I possibly believe in virgin birth? The answer is, I don't care. That's the point of faith. I don't particularly care whether it's possible or not. I don't even care whether or not Mary was "in fact" a virgin when Jesus was conceived. The reason I say that every week is to acknowledge that without God none of this would have happened, and that God is always doing new and wonderful things in the world around us if we just open our eyes to see them.
So even if you're not religious, I invite you to a Holy Lent. Stop what you're doing for a moment. Close your eyes. Let go of every thought that crosses your mind. Ignore the pressure of the world around you. Don't think about what you're going to have for dinner, or whether you fed the cats, or what your boss thinks of you, or whether the world is going to end tomorrow. And when you are completely quiet, listen for a moment for that still, small voice of calm that says, "I love you."
People who don't know me well are often surprised to find out that I am fairly religious person. Apparently, there is still a prevailing belief in our society that one cannot be both an intellectual and religious at the same time, C.S. Lewis's efforts notwithstanding. This is a relatively new phenomenon however. For millenia the only place one could find intellectuals was in the church. The idea was that by pursuing science and reason we would come closer to understanding our relationship to God. Personally, I still find that to be true. I think it's highly unfortunate that so many do not.
This attitude seems to owe its origins to thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx and Bertrand Russell; all who saw the way that religion was turned away from its original purpose of increasing human understanding of those things which were and continue to be mysterious, and instead towards controlling and marginalizing unsavory elements of the population. The irony being that Christianity when taken seriously actually supports those very things that these thinkers also supported. Jesus was an extreme advocate for the poor and the oppressed, just as Marx was. The message we get from the New Testament is that being human is good-- so good that even God shares in it-- just as Nietzsche would like us to think. And finally, Paul calls us to a life where when fulfilled we shall see not as "through a glass, darkly", but face to face with Truth. Russell surely would have loved the clarity and revelation such a meeting would give. So while the abuse of human spirituality by tyrants and oppressors is a terrible thing that continues to this day, it is not worth throwing out the entire enterprise for. There are many things that continue to puzzle and astound us, and I personally find it much more rewarding to stand back in awe of the vastness and complexity of life rather than attempt to pigeonhole it into some incomplete theory that we have the arrogance to suppose is absolute fact.
That's not to say that we shouldn't ask the questions of course. In fact, that sort of an investigation into the very meaning of life itself is what I believe we are called to do in Lent. While fasting may have been traded in for "giving things up," that doesn't make the process any less worthwhile. For example, I usually give up candy for Lent. While that may seem like a silly and simple thing to do, given that I normally eat some sort of candy throughout the day it serves as strong reminder to me every time I reach for the candy bowl that I am about something else right now. By denying that urge that I normally placate, I give myself the opportunity to reflect on what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.
Some people have asked me why I buy into the backstory and apparently irrational aspects of the Christian faith, when I could get the same sort of reflection and insight without the baggage by practicing Buddhism or Taoism. The truth is that I like the backstory. I always find more and more meaning in the stories of Jesus and the letters of Paul every time I read them. Not only that, but just as the Buddhists usually have some framework for their meditation, the Anglican service has always been a good framework for me to think, meditate, pray, sing and reflect on all these things.
This is usually the point where they press me on specific points. For example, I aver every week that Jesus was "born of the virgin Mary." How can I possibly believe in virgin birth? The answer is, I don't care. That's the point of faith. I don't particularly care whether it's possible or not. I don't even care whether or not Mary was "in fact" a virgin when Jesus was conceived. The reason I say that every week is to acknowledge that without God none of this would have happened, and that God is always doing new and wonderful things in the world around us if we just open our eyes to see them.
So even if you're not religious, I invite you to a Holy Lent. Stop what you're doing for a moment. Close your eyes. Let go of every thought that crosses your mind. Ignore the pressure of the world around you. Don't think about what you're going to have for dinner, or whether you fed the cats, or what your boss thinks of you, or whether the world is going to end tomorrow. And when you are completely quiet, listen for a moment for that still, small voice of calm that says, "I love you."
Comments
I got nothing else - just true appreciation.