The Christian observance of Lent starts today with Ash Wednesday and continues until Easter at the start of April. Today you may see Christians walking around with ashes on their heads.
I am a churchgoer but not really a believer, but Lent has meant something to me ever since I was sixteen. My mother was constantly badgering me about the dangers of alcoholism, convinced that it was partly hereditary and concerned that most of my close ancestors had a drink problem. Perhaps after attending a mass, one Ash Wednesday I decided to forsake alcohol for Lent, and I have kept up the practice ever since, not just for forty days but for forty years.
My logic was and remains that if I can live without alcohol for a spell of more than six weeks (about forty-five days, since for some reason Sundays do not count towards the forty), then I can drink all I like for the rest of the year, sure that I don’t have a problem. For anyone fearing addiction, I recommend the idea.
Lent is supposed to be a time of fasting and reflection. It seems especially appropriate this year, because my mood is of one final stretch of discipline before we can start to emerge from the pandemic after Easter.
The Ash Wednesday gospel is my favourite. We are told to give alms (generosity to those who need and can use it), fast (practice moderation) and pray (reflective thought), but do each of them covertly, so the practice is clearly for our own discipline and improvement rather than for appearances sake. It often strikes me that this approach seems to be missing when a grand building is ostentatiously dedicated to some philanthropist.
This is followed up by the gospel for the first Sunday of Lent, which turns things round and talks of temptations, albeit using imagery of the devil that I personally don’t find very helpful. The temptations are all about the allure of affirmation, status, power and hubris.
While classic religious teaching tells us to practice the good things and avoid the bad things in order to be rewarded in heaven, I don’t think we need to wait that long. Doing the good things makes us feel good straight away, and doing the bad things might give a cheap thrill but in the end serves to make us unhappy.
Most people’s concept of Lent is to give something up, and indeed fasting is part of the ritual. I give up alcohol myself, but I also support a more positive approach to the season, because giving something up doesn’t really benefit anybody except me. One idea I like is to use Lent for a project. Last year it was during Lent that I tried writing something substantial (I concede that this didn‘t really benefit anyone but me either). I haven’t had an inspiration yet, but perhaps a suitable project will come to mind during the coming days.
I like the way that Lent occurs during the last quarter of winter, at least in the northern hemisphere. That fits the theme of buckling down and showing discipline, but being buoyed by the hope of warmer days ahead following Easter. I have no idea how Easter came to be celebrated in the spring, and it is also not clear to me why Lent should immediately precede it, because the original lenten fast of Jesus occurred after his baptism rather than before his death. Still, it feels a rather serendipitous choice.
This year this is true more than ever, for so many reasons beyond the weather. Even the weather reason is stronger than before. Last year it was walking that kept me going, and the best season of all for walking is the spring, so I can look forward to spring even more intently this year. Live sports have more recently played a part in keeping me going. In prior years I often counted down winter whenever driving past Citi Field (home of Mets baseball), anticipating the start of the season. This year that anticipation can be heightened by the possibility of attending games in person once again. I will be near the front of the line.
I am hoping that I will actually pay one or two visits to Citi Field before the baseball season starts this year, because it has just opened as a mass vaccination site for Queens residents and I have now become eligible, though sadly it is still very difficult to get an appointment. Yet I expect the supply to ramp up during lent, giving more and more of us the chance to welcome Easter with a new sense of security, though we should not become reckless.
I am an optimist about the next phase of the pandemic, because I think much of developed world will start to see the effect already noticeable in Israel when enough vulnerable people are vaccinated. Two more vaccines are in the pipeline, one of them a single dose one and both of them easier to distribute than Pfizer’s. I think the bottlenecks will clear more quickly than people are currently saying.
Then I think there will be a tipping point. The numbers will show fewer deaths. Businesses will be clamouring to reopen. Governments will want to see growth resume and the need for stimulus decline. Other lobbies will be vocal, for example airlines and hotels. But the loudest voice will be the people. We have lived through this for two Lents and a whole year in between. We will, cautiously, want to go and see our relatives and book some trips. With all that pressure, I don’t think Dr. Fauci will be able to stop us.
There are a couple of other reasons for this Lent to be even more meaningful for me. I am sure I am not alone in having put on weight during the pandemic. We have been deprived of our usual means of exercise, and couches tend to lead to snacking. I have been reluctant to diet, because I always feel weaker when dieting, and I want to keep up my strength in case covid comes along. But I have chosen Lent to rebalance those risks, and will use the period to diet this year. It fits to do this while avoiding all that fattening booze as well. Luckily, our local indoor pool is also open, so I can try to increase my exercise frequency as well.
After Easter, I am hoping for other blessings to return. We have a grandchild on the way, and it would be so lovely to be able to book an international trip to meet our new relative, and perhaps Easter will be the time for that. Then there is my choral singing, even more disrupted than most activities because it is especially dangerous. That won’t go back to normal until well after Easter, but at least we can use Easter as a starting point to plan and to dream.
I am aware that for some the idea of enduring one last push, and the urgency of a reduction of pandemic restrictions, is far more serious than it is for me. We have managed to obtain a change of scene for two long spells during the last year, we have not been financially challenged, and my wife has benefited from the many advantages of working from home. It is not so hard to face a few more weeks of discipline in our situation. For those out of work or out of money or out of health or out of friends, the symbolic Easter cannot come soon enough.
The thought that came to me way back in 1977 about giving up alcohol for lent might be one of the most consequential thoughts I have ever had. It has shaped a lot in my life. For that alone I can be grateful for the annual Christian ritual. Beyond that, Lent has not always meant much to me, but this year it seems to have arrived at a perfect time. The headlines today are all about bad weather, vaccine shortages and economic hardships. Let us try to endure all of these things for a few more weeks. Easter is just around the corner.
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