Lenten surgery

When Jesus said, “if your hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. It is better to go through life with one hand than to have both and be cast into hell,” he may have had in mind that “amputation” can describe more than the removal of a damaged limb.

        Lent, however, ought not to be regarded as a surgical procedure, even metaphorically. Lent is more like rehab. Lent appears on the calendar every year, a sequence of predictably purple days, a ritual of self-denial and reformation that requires plans and programs and prescriptions. Lent is what the church does while waiting for, or remembering, the unplannable * events that bring about our salvation.

        We might prefer a world where amputation would never be required, just as we might like a religion that’s all Easter and no Lent. That’s why some people spend so much energy on denial.     

         Lenten self-denial is of a different sort. It does not seek to deny reality, but to embrace it. It does not seek to rationalize our sorry condition, but to name it.. Having done so, we can move on to new forms of constructive activity, such as learning how to impersonate a sloth.