Random thoughts on Lent 2023.

Day 1- Ash Wednesday

Today, it begins.   That intense time 40 (well really 46) days prior to Easter where I attempt repentance of some of my more deadly sins and replace them with virtues that I know God wants me to adhere to. Primarily I attempt to tackle my gluttony and replace it with temperance.   I’d figure as long as I have to fast during this season of Lent I might as well use it to attempt to eliminate some of the things I know are detrimental to my girlish figure or more accurately see if I can slim myself down to a girlish figure which I don’t think I ever had even when I was a girl.

Like millions of Christians/Catholics I too attended Ash Wednesday mass prior to me starting my job today.   You’d think with how crowded the 6:30 am mass I attended was Ash Wednesday was a holy day of obligation.  It’s not.   The only thing by code Cannon law 1251 is for anyone above the age of 14 to fast and abstain from meat/food in general on Ash Wednesday & Good Friday.   And even for Ash Wednesday & Good Friday you are allowed two smaller meals that should be no greater than the main meal of the day.  So theoretically you can get a donut & cup of coffee from Dunkin Donuts, a cup of tomato soup & half a grilled cheese sandwich with a charged lemonade for lunch from Panera and you can pig out on all you can eat shrimp at Red Lobster as long as you wash that ash cross off your forehead 1^st.  

Now, there are a couple of ironies about everyone rushing into church on Ash Wednesday to start off their Lenten fast.   Irony #1.  All Ash Wednesday’s masses have the same Gospel every year MT 6: 1-6 & 16-18 where Jesus instructs his follows about being hypocrites and making their faces glum and making it obvious you’re fasting.  Jesus specifically instructs “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face you that you may not appear to be fasting.”   So, anyone who goes to any church distributing ashes is telling the whole world you are fasting.   Irony #2.  I’ve known people who have diligently attended Ash Wednesday services and abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent according to Catholic cannon law only to ignore the all important 3^rd commandment of keeping the sabbath holy by going to church on Sunday as stated in Exodus 20- 8-10.   Irony #3 (for me alone this year) This Ash Wednesday was a work from home day for me.  Yes, I could have raced towards the office to show off my ash cross on my forehead but my home is closest to church not my office.  Moreover, I enjoy the days I work from home so I can use my lunch break to scream in a guttural rage of exacerbation when I can’t seem to keep up with the calls/issues I have to deal with and not have to worry if I’m about to be arrested and/or fired for being insane.   So, my attendance at Mass was for me and my soul.  My reminder that I am to return to dust if I don’t try my hardest to repent.