Millions of people did at least one of two things yesterday: eat Paczki's (or another indulgent dessert) and watch the State of the Union Address. It was simultaneously the greatest day of caloric excess allowed in organized religion as well as an update on the health of the nation. If you are beginning to see the irony... good. The State of the Union, or SOTU in the ever-increasing desire to abbreviate for social media, has long become less of an update and more of a preview of the political arenas of the next several months. The SOTU is a time for lines in the sand to be drawn. This is made more obvious when the SOTU is followed up by two additional speeches by opponents. It's a day to score points and use them as political capital to move agendas. Meanwhile, Mardis Gras (or Fat Tuesday) is a day for unlimited consumption, a certain party down in New Orleans and a day to "get it out of your system" before the fasting season of Lent. It is indulgent as well as delicious.
There is a common thread to both of these events. The common thread isn't about who is president, nor is it about politics. The common thread is that both days are days to relax one's personal responsibility. On Fat Tuesday, you can consume guilt-free. In the SOTU, you get to hear about how other people are supposed to make this land a better one in which to live. Your only responsibility is not to look. Don't look at the scale, don't look at your own life, don't look at your neighborhood.
Lent, on the other hand, is all about looking inward. Lent asks tough questions about excess and invites us into the liberating journey of self-control. Leave guilt and obsessive binge behind, embrace simplicity and grace. Lent holds up the funny paradox that getting everything we could ever want leaves us empty, but giving of ourselves to serve others leaves us full. In Lent, I find hope and energy in the Sermon on the Mount. What the SOTM lacked in pomp and circumstance it made up in grace and power. Imagine being on the brink of despair and hearing the words "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Imagine, in an empire which spread peace at the tip of a sword, hearing "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." Christ offers us a different way- a humble way, a merciful way.
Indulgence is easy, humility is hard. Drawing lines in the sand is easy, reaching across the lines to love one's neighbor is hard. Struggling for power and one's one agenda is not necessarily easy, but it certainly is easier than setting one's own agenda aside and listening. I guess that's why Fat Tuesday is only one day, and Lent is a 40-day journey. Perhaps this Lenten season is one where we can all pull together and embrace the Sermon on the Mount just a little bit in our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment