Isn't Lent Redundant in 2021?

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A few times, in the past, especially when things didn’t seem to be “going my way”, and Ash Wednesday was approaching—with its implication that I should be giving something up—I decided to give up Lent for Lent. I mean, I was already depleted/deprived by life in general, why pile on yet another “hardship”.  Some of those years, I did flip the “Lenten Obligation” to the classic “take something on”, like reading Augustine’s Confessions (a really good book by the way!). But, in both cases, something seemed awry—like I wasn’t really “doing it right”.

And, then came the pandemic. And the shift away from meeting in person for church, with the associated cessation of the Eucharist. Yes, it made good health sense to maintain distance from one another. Yes, “typical” distribution of the Eucharist requires some relatively close encounters (not to mention the physical contact of the celebrant with the bread and chalice). So a number of folks (including our Bishop) started talking about a “Eucharistic fast”–that is, to see not taking the Eucharist as a spiritual practice in-and-of-itself. I understand that, although I don’t think anyone, early on, had any idea how long that fast would be!

And, then, last week, an article came into my inbox titled, “Must we do Lent this year?” Written by a professor—James Farwell—at Virginia Theological Seminary (one of the Episcopal Church’s training centers for clergy), the author contends that, given that COVID is forcing us to face our mortality, this might be a really good year to focus on Lent. He goes on to stress that Lent isn’t just about sorrow; indeed he points to joy:

“Lent is also about joy to the extent that our effort, by the grace of God, to return to the life God offers, is a moment of solemn celebration. Not facile optimism, but the celebration of the Life incarnate in the resurrected body of him who still bore the marks of his suffering. There is sorrow in repentance – in turning again – as we acknowledge death and loss. But there is JOY in Lenten repentance. It is a turning again toward LIFE. It is a return to what heals us.”

“It is a return to what heals us.” As some of you might expect, language like that would take me straight to Appreciative Inquiry, where the focus is on the “best of the past”, on what has worked in the past. And, so I wonder, might not Lent this year—especially this year—be a time for me to take a life inventory, with the sole purpose of re-visiting all those times in the past when I was most joy-filled, and reflecting how God was present in those moments. If Lent is a time to “put in mind the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior” (from the Ash Wednesday liturgy, BCP, p. 265), then recalling those times, and the circumstances, when we most felt that pardon and absolution seems incredibly valuable at this time in our global history, when we are surrounding by so much bleakness.  God has blessed us before; God will bless us again!

“I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church to the observance of a holy Lent . . .” (BCP, p. 265)