LENT/ Penitence and Purification

Lent has begun. It would appear that the interior disposition suited to this liturgical time, penitence, is favored by external circumstances these days. The economic crisis is putting us on short rations and, in many quarters, it is evident that this fact leads to a change in lifestyle. People are speaking about the value of sobriety, moderation, inviting others to rediscover more simple eating habits, clothing, and entertainment that are also less expensive, less demanding in terms of time and probably better for our health. Now that the crisis no longer allows the things of the past, we have discovered ourselves to be part of a society of overfed people who are slaves of fashion, obsessed with having the latest technological gadget and spending the holidays in the trendiest places. It is consumerism, as reviled as it is coveted, and now that we have to accept years of lean times, we are rediscovering the value of some abstinence. Even from the intoxication of the media, like the journalist who heroically decided to completely disconnect himself from the net for a week, then told us how, in this epic struggle, he was able to prove to himself that he was not an Internet addict.

Since nothing happens by chance, I am convinced that this invitation to sobriety that the circumstances are offering and/or requiring of us is a good opportunity, but it cannot be reduced to the sense of penitence as Lent proposes it to us.

First of all because this penitence is one that is forced upon us from the outside and looks too much like putting a good face on a bad situation. Not being the result of a free and rational decision, it remains superficial and is likely to become an interlude while waiting to resume the behaviors and lifestyles of before. What is totally missing in this air of rosewater Franciscanism, of abstinence that resembles a detoxification, of a renunciation that is a bit too much like impotence, is precisely what Christian tradition calls for as a first step: the consciousness of sin. The simple fact of using this uncomfortable word makes all the difference. The starting point of penitence is indeed the awareness that there is something wrong that must be "confessed", bravely admitted.