---

This week, in our reflections about the "marks" of the season of Lent, we'll focus on how Lent is often understood as a time of "giving up things" or of making sacrifices.

Although many people often choose to do something extra for Lent, many others decide to give up something: tea, coffee, candy, smoking, TV, the computer or, even more radically, the smartphone. One might teasingly suggest that Lent ought to involve both giving up something and doing something extra, just as the three practices of Lent -- prayer, fasting and acts of charity -- are inclusive!

The practice of giving up something as an act of penance and of spiritual discipline is an ancient one. Like so many of our marks or signs of Lent, it is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.

Giving up things is really about making sacrifices. We are certainly familiar with this idea: Parents frequently make sacrifices for their families, and this often means going without or giving up certain things so the family will benefit: a sacrifice of time, a financial sacrifice or just a pure, plain sacrifice of oneself.

In a spiritual sense, giving up things or making sacrifices is a key part of growing in our faith. The word "sacrifice" comes from the two Latin words "sacrum facere:" literally, "to make holy" or a "holy-doing."

Jesus' own supreme sacrifice on the cross, made present in what we call the sacrifice of the Mass, was indeed to make us holy, to bring us salvation; it is a holy-doing. So, making sacrifices or giving up something can act as a reminder of what Jesus has done for us, and also remind us that we do not depend ultimately on whatever we have given up; we depend on God.After all, in the Gospel, Jesus tells us that to be His disciples, we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him (Luke 9:22-25).

Giving up things can also help us to have a deeper sense of solidarity with those who often go without not out of choice but, sadly, out of necessity.

How about giving up things that are bad habits or simply wrong, such as envious thoughts, gossiping or always thinking ill of others? This would be a great way of taking seriously Jesus' call in the words said to us on Ash Wednesday as the ashes were placed on our foreheads: "Repent and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1:15).

Sacrifices or giving up things during Lent should then lead to a stronger spirituality -- an awareness of the presence of God and of the needs of others, as well as our own spiritual health.

Unfortunately, sometimes the opposite can be true, which is possibly why giving up things for Lent has rather fallen out of favor. If our sacrifices make us crabby or mean-spirited, then something is obviously not right. I knew a priest who, every Lent, gave up alcohol and smoking -- and everyone dreaded it. By the end of the first week of Lent, people (including the other priests who lived in the rectory) were begging him to reverse his decision, as he was quite impossible to be around!

Giving up things is meant to help, not hinder, our relationship with God, others and ourself. As St. Augustine wrote centuries ago in "The City of God," "A sacrifice is anything that we do with the aim of being united to God in holy fellowship...anything that is directed towards that supreme good and end in which alone we can be truly blessed."

A prayer that we hear at every Mass seems to sum up our reflections: "Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father."

May this be so.

(Father Barratt is pastor of St. Ambrose parish in Latham. He holds a doctorate in theology and was a professor at St. John's Seminary in England before coming to the U.S. in 2004.)[[In-content Ad]]

---