(1 Sm 15:16-23; Ps 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21, 23; Mk 2: 18-22)
Lent comes early this year … isn’t that great?
From the pressing of the ashes to the final dark days of Good Friday, we are just a few weeks away from that most favorite of Liturgical seasons.
Season of repentance. Season of sorrow, suffering and death. A season when we bow our heads more, spend more time on our kneelers, more time beating our chest with fists of sorrow.
Let’s face it … Catholics love Lent. We love to suffer.
We thrive on repentance and the feeling of being unworthy to celebrate anything.
(Thank goodness my birthday is in the summer!)
Why do we embrace the sufferings of Lent? Is it because we long for the joys of Easter? I’m not so sure.
The 40-some days of Lent (the “some” reflects the Sundays of the season … more on that in a moment) pale in comparison to the 50 days of Easter, that bright, warm and fuzzy season where we seemingly overdose on joyous songs and celebrations leading up to Pentecost.
Many Catholics – mostly those of the “cradle” crowd – confide in me that after a few fun weeks of Easter, they get a little tired of all the joy-joy-joy and are ready to go back to being somber.
Why is that? Why do we Catholics tend to embrace Lent, rather than the joys of Easter?
It could be that we consider suffering our path to holiness. Perhaps we feel we are on the right path when we crawl on our knees, rather than dance in a field of blooming flowers.
Or maybe in our humility, we find it hard to truly celebrate the Lord’s victory over death when so many of our brothers and sisters around the world continue to suffer.
Maybe it’s because we truly feel closer to Jesus when we suffer, than we do when we are joyful.
All theories are valid and are probably pretty close to what most Catholics feel in their hearts.
And if that’s the case, then is there anything wrong with embracing the pain with more joy than we allow ourselves when we celebrate the resurrection?
Today’s Gospel provides us a clue to the answer.
“The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, ‘Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’
“Jesus answered them, ‘Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.’ ”
So here’s the rub: Can we fast while Jesus is with us? Clearly, we can’t.
Which brings us back to one of those crazy debates that only Catholics seem to care about. When you fast, or give up something for Lent – chocolate, soda, beer, television – does that include Sundays?
Most of the old-time cradle Catholics would say of course! What good is doing a 40-day fast if you allow yourself “splurge” days once a week?
Others would argue … how can we fast on a Sunday, when even Holy Mother Church tells us that Sunday is never a day of fasting? It’s like a mini-Easter.
I suppose if you do the math, the season of Lent is not actually 40 days long. It’s 46 … to account for the Sundays in the season.
It’s a bit surprising how many Catholics don’t know this.
Several years ago, I taught 6th graders parish religious education and it was always fun to tell them the “Sunday secret” about Lent … so they could go home and tell their parents that they did not have to observe their fast on Sundays.
Of course, as in most things, moderation is the key to this … you can’t use Sunday as a “splurge” day to undo all the good fasting you’ve done during the week.
But you also can’t go to Mass during Lent and feel bad about celebrating the Passion and Resurrection as it is played out every week at the altar.
There are times when we must allow ourselves to be happy … no matter how wrong it feels.
