02-13-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
February 13, 2024
Many people will ask about this strange tradition within the Christian faith called Ash Wednesday. The funny thing is the connection to Mardi Gras, which means Fat Tuesday. Like so many things within the Christian faith, Mardi Gras grew out of an adoption process. When Christianity moved into a new area of the world, instead of trying to destroy every aspect of the culture, there were often attempts (sadly, not here in the Americas) to borrow, or what some might call cultural appropriation. When Christianity found its way to Rome, it attempted to incorporate some of the traditions around the spring fertility celebrations associated with the Roman gods. As the Season of Lent approached, a season associated with fasting and contemplative prayer, this new ‘borrowed’ festival became a threshold event. Since people would fast in Lent, maybe eating only fish, Fat Tuesday became the day when you got rid of all the fatty foods in the home, including meat, eggs, milk, lard, and cheese. Often, your family members couldn’t eat all these items by themselves, so the disposal of the access food became a sort of party where people indulged and were a bit gluttonous in advance of the Forty Days of Lent. It carried with it a dramatic shift from one period to another, but I sort of find that image helpful in the faith journey. Life consists of many changes, some of them rather dramatic in their move from high to low and back to high. It reminds us that faith is not attached to one emotion or one life experience. Faith is what carries us through life, especially when an unexpected shift changes everything we had previously understood about life. Even in the unexpected, God is present.

As we move ever-so-close to the Season of Lent, Lord God, we seek to do what can be done to prepare ourselves for a shift in focus, a movement toward a deeper awareness of who I am with you. Amen.