Lent: an opportune season! -Fr. Conrad Saldanha

The beautiful thing about seasons, is that they come and go at their appointed times, and achieve that what they are meant to do. The consequences for an individual can either be good, bad or indifferent. Seasons are just a change in the climatic conditions of nature and atmosphere. Yet they have such a vast and drastic influence on human beings. We need to be geared up to face it! Imagine preparing for monsoons without rain gear or for summer without a fan or an air conditioner at home, or for winter without warm clothing’s, etc. Some special food and clothing’s find their real use in a particular season.  Even a well bred businessman knows that there are seasons for making money and they need to take advantage of it.

Seasons come and go, they influence our lifestyle and thinking yet not all would benefit as much or enjoy the fruit of a season unless one is geared up and well prepared to take advantage of the season.  To the young you need not teach how to take advantage of the parties and celebrations. It’s a season too, to take advantage of.  The most beautiful thing concerning a season is that those who take advantage of the available fruits and produce, can even benefit from it all throughout the year and even longer.

Similarly, the season of lent is a season in which only those reap the benefit who know how to take advantage of it. Just as young couple would take advantage of Valentine day and other such opportunities similarly lent is a moment, a season to take advantage of; to express our love for God in whom alone our soul could find rest. Mangoes and derivates could be available to us throughout every season but the abundance and special flavor is available to us only in its season. And when the whole community is at it why should one lose the moment of opportunity to indulge in the joys of the moment.

“It’s never too late to mend”, goes a famous proverb.  More so when the goal we are seeking and the joy thereof is the highest and the best; it’s better than having mangoes and wealth and houses and loads of every pleasure at our disposal. The psalmist who has tasted such a wonderful joy has his goal and vision clear; “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple”. Ps 27:4 He shall not look to the seasons and opportunities of this materialistic world but will rather go all out for the divine fulfillment.

To do that we need to first change the motives of our heart before we take a plunge in seeking the heavenly pleasures. We may find ourselves taking up this assignment in right earnestness and along the way forget the purpose and goal of our activities. It is like a person, who begins in right earnestness to serve his people, but ends up swindling them. It is like a man who answers the divine call in right earnestness to serve God, but ends up serving his own selfish cause. Or an individual who takes up higher studies, and keeps forgetting his goals, unless reminded by someone or by the pressures of exams.

So, when you fast or pray or give alms do not forget to seek God’s glory rather than self glory or else we may end up as hypocrites.(ref. Mt.6:1-16)

So often, people ask me about fasting and prayer and alms giving. How to do it quietly and without fanfare? How much to give and why? Isn’t alms giving and reaching out to others more important than prayer and fasting? Isn’t works more important than faith?  Or they would point at others or at people in the renewal ministry as being hypocrites. Why? Because they pray aloud and go contrary to Jesus’ injunction; thus act like the hypocrites. Those who think like this are people who have missed a point and have only manifested their hypocrisy of not attending to the log in their own eye. 

Some fast during the whole season of lent and give-up on drinks and favorites. Some make it a point to avoid non-vegetarian food and go through great lengths to give alms and yet may have very little time for God and prayer. God may never be the centre or the reason for such action. People,  undertake a  fast for various reasons; some fast to slim down, some fast to detoxify, some fast for health reasons, some fast to show-off.

What do you fast for?  The purpose for fasting and alms giving needs to be aimed at, being detached from our carnal self and be attached to the divine; to be guided by his Holy Spirit, and thus to be filled with heavenly graces. Fasting, penance and alms giving, in any form should be aimed at helping us grow in the love and faith of Christ; who alone is worthy of our love and affection.

There are some who would jump to judgments and may even condemn such thinking as being only vertical in thinking. The Christian tradition of reaching out to others flows from its vertical spirituality; the God whom we love and want to serve directs our hearts to love others too, directing each one according to one’s ability and talents. I once met a Christian gentleman who did a lot of charity and at the same time boasted of his new found faith based on human values and the equality of all religions.  I was compelled to remind him that if today he is doing any acts of charity it is on account of his Christian background and influence. It is not the believers of humanity and religious ideologies who are major practitioners of Charity but the Christians and statistics proves it all. Hence, those who seek to build apart from God will only be promoting and building their own kingdoms and communities in the name of Christianity. For them spirituality is a way of soothing and comforting the exploited ones who are deceived by them and made use of to build their own kingdoms and communities. Therefore they have no qualms of conscience to promote a self-centric diabolic spirituality based on eastern practices and crude holistic approaches which ultimately promote their own ends.

The aim of this article is not to discourage fasting and alms giving but rather to fight the hypocrisy and to keep God’s glory as the ultimate purpose of our doing things rather than seek to build one’s kingdom (I Cor. 10:31).  Hence fasting and alms giving is good, it helps us if we embark on it with the right attitude and spirit. Then we will not do it because the law says it or the church requires it but because God desires it, that too for my own good and for his greater glory. We will participate in the process not because of a mere external injunction but rather because of our need for repentance and transformation; a groan of a faint heart and a weak spirit. This fasting, prayer and almsgiving is not the pure human triumph but the participation with God in his triumph. We shall seek his help during every part of the journey; he who has given us his Holy Spirit to lead and guide us.

To further aid us in this journey we will seek the wisdom of the servants of Christ, and read books and the rich spiritual wisdom offered by the ancient tradition of the Church; through the writings of the desert fathers.  Then there is the help of the Sacraments and devotions which ingrains in us a piety that strengthens us to face the constant onslaught of the evil one, in fighting against the concupiscence of the flesh and mind. “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”. Rom 12:1-2

Fasting and alms giving can also gain new meaning and significance for the faithful of God. It takes the meaning of sacrifice with thanksgiving and gratitude. The invitation of Christ to discipleship gains a new significance and meaning and hence the need of participating in the constant dying and rising process.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” John 12:24-25. The participation in the dying and rising process becomes then an ongoing exercise not just at lent and Ash Wednesday but also throughout the year. It takes on a wider meaning and perspective of dying to our many selfish hungers of power, self glory, revenge, hate, greed and self indulgence, self assertions, fears, anxieties and guilt. Otherwise our fight against sin and achieving perfection, can take on wicked dimensions of human pride and self glory, predisposed to condemnation, judgments and prejudice, and above all, a hypocrisy which finds faults in the other rather than the self. Those in leadership could end up promoting a human agenda opposed to true godliness and sound Christian doctrine.

Let this lent then be an occasion, a season of grace to earnestly embark on a journey of seeking a right relationship with God even as it offers us the means, through the various actions of the church and the wisdom derived from its traditions. Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. Ps 34:5

Prayer: Lord help me to be faithful to your calling of being your true disciple and seek you with all my heart in this wonderful season,  so that I may reap its fruit all throughout my life and lead a life that is pleasing to God.