This is the season of Lent. It is the time before Easter. “The 40 week days from Ash Wednesday until Easter observed by Christians as a season of fasting and penitence”, says Webster. The word ‘Lent’ comes from an Old English word ‘lente’ that meant ‘Spring’. We remember many Lents when it was impressed upon us daily the need for less. Today it is un- American to speak about enjoying or seeking less when ‘more’ is seemingly the end-all and be-all of our society. In January of this year an article in the “Parade” magazine accented the opposite notion that ”When It’s All Too Much”. The question was asked, “Could our unprecedented material abundance actually be the cause of unhappiness? Yes, answers a noted social scientist in a new book” The psychologist argues that having so much makes choosing what is the ‘best or the best for me’ causes or plays an important role in the increase of clinically depressed people. The statistics support the increase in clinical depression and he offers this as one of the possible reasons for it. You don’t need to be an expert to see that having to make a decision as to what I want, based on any number of standards, can become an ordeal. My thoughts on all this is look how far we have come from the Christian society which annually gave up things, to one where people get depressed and upset from having so much from which to choose!! The spring of the year has turned into winter by a mind frozen with all the goods they believe they ‘need’ but really only have been made to believe they ’want’.
We learned early, but it needs constant reminding, that ‘need’ and ‘want’ are not identical in a most cases. The season of Lent in the days of our youth showed us how we could give up something and actually see it as beneficial.
Today ‘giving up’ something so easily available is tougher. A goal must be set, like running a marathon or losing 10 pounds. Now the Christian idea becomes a modern idea. I do recall as I grew up seeing signs in restaurants reading “Lenten meals served”. In newspapers you could read of “Lenten” recipes –now it seems it is all ‘Fat Free” or “Low Carbs” recipes. Most of the news in this area is about our abundance. We are the most “obese” nation of the world. The idea of fasting today is seldom thought to be done for spiritual reasons. It only becomes a need to have good health. ‘Fasting’, ‘Giving up’, etc. are not words easily found in our vocabulary. Yet, fasting has proven in the past to not only reduce our ”avoirdupois’’ (weight or heaviness of a person) but sharpened our minds and wits. Recently, I was re-reading “The Last of the Mohicans” and was interested to read praise for fasting. It was a warrior’s hidden weapon to sharpen his reflects in preparation for battle! Now here were lean and mean so called ‘savages’ giving up more to increase their fighting abilities. Today in fighting the battle of to much weight a bit of Indian lore could help us sharpen our weapons for doing so.
Certainly part of the drive or wish to accumulate material possessions stems from believing “that’s all there is”. This life is it. There is no hereafter, no eternity, no God waiting for his creatures to return. Such beliefs are common today in a variety of forms in this world. Our culture is the recipient of the “gift” from the philosophy of people like Kant, Nietzsche, and Hegel, who espoused the idea that no higher power exist. I like the way the German Theologian, Hans Kung puts it, “It makes no difference whether one considers the human race in its many thousand years of history or in its global extension: One will never find a tribe that lacked faith in some sort of transcendence. From a global perspective, atheism among the masses is a typical Western ‘achievement’ even though it has spread to the East. It is thus the affair of a cultural minority in this century” (“Theology for the Third Millennium: Is there one true religion?” p. 231) but even without a philosophical argument people act as if the end is the end. Unlike Hamlet who mused otherwise, “Ay, there’s the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause”. They have been led to think contrary to the inner voice and spirit that keeps telling them otherwise. Materialism with all its devices has failed to chase that away or offer any reasonable explanation for the existence of consciousness, the spirit or mind of man. So it is reasonable to believe and act that this spirit or whatever you want to call it will not cease to exist when the matter that contains it no longer does.
I had to smile as I read what one atheist’s explanation was as to why we couldn’t explain the existence of the spirit within us. She offered as a reason that our brain hadn’t evolved enough for us to understand and thus explain it. I’ve decided not to wait for such a miracle. I am willing to accept the miracle of its presence and all it entails. I always liked the philosopher Pascal’s wager. He felt it was a good bet to wager on there being an eternity, or an after life, since he felt he had nothing to lose doing so. He thought betting, or living as if, it were not so would really be a gamble and the loss would be irretrievable. But betting is not the issue here, it’s living. The end can and will organize and direct the means thereto. If we believe it all ends here, then it makes no sense not to accumulate all we can, in whatever manner we can, short of being caught, since “that’s all there is”. But if the reverse is true than maybe we should look into what it is all about. This is what most people do when they believe in an afterlife and a God awaiting our return. Looking at it they learn that it is all about love. First, the love that made you possible and all that God has created; then the love of those whom he also has created for us to enjoy in fellowship and then to look forward to the love of God that will not hampered by our material being. This is what heaven and the after life mean to me. The biggest problem we have however is keeping focused on that end. All the other activities of importance gain control and we find ourselves far from practicing what we believe. It is only then we must call on that inner power to help us keep focused. We as a spiritual community, commonly called a church, are reading a best seller to help us achieve that end. It is entitled the “The Purpose Driven Life”. It is made for a Lenten reading since it has 40 chapters so it easily matches the 40 days. They are short and to the point making for an easy, though thoughtful, read. It contains a great deal of practical wisdom in learning how to keep focused.
I write these jottings in different place. I am sitting in the office of my son’s Paul’s home in Philadelphia. June and I are here to offer love and help to Mary Lou a daughter to June and stepdaughter to me. She has been suffering for some time with pancreatic problems leading now to surgery before the month is completed. As it also happens my son’s Paul’s home, a duplex, is a mere half a block from the first house I ever owned in Philadelphia. It was there that Paul, Jr. and his brothers and sisters grew up. It was there I lived until 1977 from 1958. It brings back many happy memories of children playing in the back yard, of times of injury and joy, and the neighborhood on each turn recalls things of the past. The home itself has since been renovated with the application of siding, shingles, etc. so physically it is not the same house we left. But like all relics of memory it stands out as one carrying many good ones. We are blessed in being able to forget the unpleasant ones most of the time. Our stay in our son’s home has another wrinkle; I am alone most of the time, since June is living mostly with Mary Lou in her apartment some four or five blocks away. Fortunately for me my meals are still provided by the world’s best cook, June! It gives me time for more reading, writing, and painting. But at the same time the routine of St.Petersburg, the friends, the warmth of the Florida weather, the fellowship of many friends, are sorely missed. We have softened the loss by meeting with children and friends here but we both miss the “home sweet home”. Hopefully by the time I get to writing the jottings for April, we’ll have a some idea when we will be heading back to the land of sun and green. Until then, Pax tecum!