Lent

Before coming to Saskatchewan I’m not sure if I had ever heard about this, lent. I probably did but I obviously don’t remember and so I did not really understood what it was. I don’t even know how we call that “season” in French… or I don’t remember maybe. I guess that the reader knows what lent is and why and etc. but I’ll write about it because it’s something fairly new to me.

On my second mission trip to Louisiana in 2003 our leader drove our white 15-passangers van for about 12 hours non-stop (apart for the few stops for gas and bathroom) so we would get to Lafayette very late that Monday night. After sleeping a few hours in a church and finding barbecues in the outside showers at 4am or something like that, we got ready and finally found a parking spot near Main street in Lafayette. Well, I don’t remember the name of the street, but it was the Main street. Hundreds of people had gathered, wearing long bead necklaces of all kinds, others were rolling their little shopping carts around, selling necklaces, masks, all sorts of stuff. The Main street was closed with fences, so nobody could drive or even walk there. People were sitting everywhere by the fences, there was lots of people. That was the beginning of “Mardi Gras” (Fat Tuesday) in Lafayette. We stayed for the first parade (the King’s Parade) then we left, knowing that the coming parades would not be appropriate for Christians, children and teens, or anybody that wants to keep his eyes pure. Anyways, we left in between the two parades.
The next day, I remember seeing lots of people, walking in the street, entering Mc Donald’s and etc. having a gray spot on their forehead. That is, a “ash spot” as I like to call it. That was, obviously, Ash Wednesday. People had indulged themselves in all kinds of sinful practices on Mardi Gras and the next day, went to the church (Catholic I believe) and got a ash spot on their forehead, they got “forgiven”.
And from that day on (or is it on Mardi Gras?) the season of lent had started, till Easter came.

Lent is a period of 40 days (or is it 48?) before Easter. Willing Christians choose to give up something during that period, like chocolate, carbs, or anything they like to do, in order to experience somehow, not only with their comprehension, but with their bodies, the sufferings Jesus went through for us when he was “captured” and crucified. If you want to see what lent is for some people, watch the film “Chocolat”, lent is pictured in a very legalistic way there. I don’t know what I think about lent though. I think it’s a good idea, but I realize that our giving up of, let’s say, chocolate for 40 days, will obviously not make us experience the sufferings Jesus went through. To me it sounds a bit… foolish to think that “I won’t eat chocolate in order to understand more how Jesus suffered for me”. I know that for some people, giving up certain things can be very hard though. I don’t want you to think that I am against lent. I think it’s a neat idea and that since I know when to start it now, I’ll probably give up something next lent (2007). But if it is done in a legalistic way (I do it because I was told to) or because of self-righteousness (I do it because people will think well of me) then lent doesn’t mean anything. We should give up something that will cost us something, like we like to say my sister and I at New Year’s “This year, I’ll give up eating whale”, “This year I’ll stop drinking”. We just say that for fun, but you get my point, if we give up chocolate simply ‘cause it’s an easy one, then we won’t “suffer” and the point of lent is to “suffer”.

I’ll say my point in the next entry…

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