April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
LENTEN REFLECTION
Slow conspicuous consumerism
Just then, a white horse approaches a water trough. The Zen master says: "Look; there is a horse, all white. No alcohol has ever touched its lips and it has nails in its shoes. I ask you, is that a horse or a saint?"
This story is apropos for reflection as many Christian denominations begin the season of Lent. The word "Lent" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "lengthen," meaning "springtime" - the lengthening of days and the transition from winter to spring. It is a time of growth and new life.
Early Christians prepared for Easter by a two-day period of strict fasting. Gradually, it extended to all of Holy Week. By the fourth century, the Roman world observed it as a 40-day period, reflecting Jesus' 40-day-and-night fast in the desert.
Lent was never about Good Friday; rather, it was about Easter. It was a time of communal preparation for the celebration of baptism, of welcoming catechumens into the community of faith at the Easter vigil. For Christians already baptized, it was a time to reflect on the meaning of their own baptism and the renewal of their baptismal promises.
Over the centuries, the practice of Lent changed focus and it went the route of the Zen disciple in the story: It became centered on personal acts of self-mortification, rather than being focused on new life in the risen Christ.
In recent times, the original purpose of this season has been emphasized. Our aloneness and solitary navel-gazing has been replaced by positive acts that demonstrate love of God and neighbor.
This story from the early desert fathers brings home the point: A brother once asked an older monk in a desert community, "Which is holier - someone who leads a solitary life for six days a week, giving himself much pain, or another who simply takes care of the sick?" The older man smiled and replied, "Even if the one who withdrew for six days were to hang himself up by his nostrils, he would not equal the one who serves the sick."
Self-denial never substitutes for love of another.
Lent should bring about a conversion to authentic Gospel-based living and radically alter our relationships with each other and God. Some churches have proposed that we use this season to reestablish a balance in our relationship with nature - with all the sentient creatures with which we share life on this beautiful planet.
We live on a planet covered with rich and abundant life, but we have not been good stewards of this precious gift of God. We are five percent of the global population rapaciously consuming 40 percent of the Earth's resources. Our daily use of material resources is the equivalent of 300 full shopping bags a week.
Lent offers us the opportunity to "fast" from our conspicuous consumerism. As Gandhi expressed it, "How can I live more simply, so that others may simply live?"
(Father Broderick leads the Albany Diocese's "Pueblo to People" sister parish project, primarily with parishes in Latin American countries.)[[In-content Ad]]
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