Unorthodox Lenten Penances

It may have been said by my homeletics professor in seminary, or by Father Walter Burghardt in one of his numerous books of sermons, but I learned that stealing is always a sin -- except when it comes to homilies.  If another guy/gal preaching the Gospel has a good idea or turn of phrase or metaphor, steal it!

In that spirit, I offer four unorthodox Lenten penances which appeared in a recent (2/20/2012) edition of America magazine.  Each of them challenges us to move beyond our usual ways of thinking or acting in lent.

Father John Kavanaugh, a professor of philosophy at St. Louis University and longtime commentator in America, suggests "an asceticism of truth."  Huh?  As a wise Christian and priest, he knows how easily we can delude ourselves into hiding our sins and thinking we are a much better a follower of Christ than we are.  How to pursue such asceticism?  It could be with bracing doses of silence, a holy solitude for ten or thirty minutes a day.  Or "a weekly visit with marginal persons who make us uncomfortable."  Or a sincere prayer, not to do the works of a Christian, but just to be in the presence of our living and loving God.

Professor Gerald W. Schlabach, of the University of  St. Thomas in Minneapolis, suggests that we love the enemy in the pew next to you.  Terrorists and other faraway enemies are easy to forgive, he suggests.  Much harder to actually try to love the person praying next to you at Sunday Mass, whose ways or thoughts are fingernails on your proverbial blackboard.  How to love?  By engaging in listening, without arguing back, without debating, listening "for the back story behind positions you may never agree upon."  Your neighbor could be, he offers, an openly gay Catholic who continues to receive the Eucharist.  Or a pro-life activist who is so impassioned about some ways of defending life that he or she seems to ingore other ways.  Or the liturgist who still includes "those awful guitar-Mass ditties" which you hate.  Or the person who regularly changes "his" to "God's", for "the good of all God's holy church."  Maybe by listening you (and I) might hear the real story of another child of God.

Dr. Margaret Pfeil of Notre Dame comes from the heartland, and so does her suggestion for Lenten penance.  She notes that the food we buy in super-duper markets comes from around the world.  She suggests that we work to bring locally grown food (crops, vegetables from urban gardens, home-baked goods) to needy people in your neighborhood.  "Running a community grocery stocked with local foods and cultivating cooperative economic practices represent civic actions of nonviolent love."

I've met, and heard, Father Tom Massaro several times.  He is a professor of social ethics at Boston College, and a fervent proponent of Catholic social thought.  Even with approval ratings for our Congresspersons hovering at 11%, he suggests we get to know our own legislators and their staffs.  It could be on the state or federal level.  He writes, "Think of civic involvement for structural change as an alternative form of almsgiving . . . If it is good to provide a single meal for a hungry person, how much better it would be to advocate for more generous and reliable public food assistance programs for the long haul."  You don't have to travel to Washington or Harrisburg.  He wisely notes that it's much easier to get an appointment with a staffer (or the legislator) in a local office.  Do your homework.  Be prepared with your brief but clear advocacy for a policy or bill.  Tell pertinent stories of why this will improve the common good.  Work with others (Catholic, ecumenical, interfaith) on the same topic.  "If you still prefer to think in terms of 'giving up something for Lent,' then let it be civic apathy that you relinguish."

Have a happy Lent!