"Lent" (Part 1)

Today is known as “Ash Wednesday” in the ecumenical calendars of Christianity. While some do not strictly follow the other days of the calendar, nearly all of the Christian community recognizes and celebrates the days of Easter. Lent is a time of preparation for this celebration. For centuries it has provided a time for concentration in three areas of Christian activity: giving, praying, and fasting. For the next few days we’ll examine each of these.

Take care! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, because then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give a gift to someone in need, don't shout about it as the hypocrites do – blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I assure you, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone, don't tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4 NLV).

A mother wanted to teach her daughter a moral lesson. She gave the little girl a quarter and a dollar for church. “Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself,” she told the girl. When they were coming out of church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. “Well,” said the little girl, “I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I’d be a lot more cheerful if I gave the quarter, so I did.”

As humorous as that little story might be so much of the time we have come to the same conclusion as that little girl. Lent is a time for us to reflect on our attitude toward giving. Jesus’ teaching about giving in the Sermon on the Mount goes so much further than mere offerings made to the church. Giving “alms” means making the needs of others our own, especially the needy of our world. They are all around us: children and the old, the sick and the suffering, families and individuals, next-door neighbors and people in lands faraway. We easily forget them. We have so much to give. Some of us have time, others talent, or material resources. Giving is not just for the rich. Poor or rich, we all have something to give. Whatever we give, though, should be something of ourselves, something that costs us.

I remember when I was a child and a member of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the traditions we practiced was the “giving up” of something for Lent. Often it might involve some favorite food or pastime. In recent years I have come to realize that Jesus does not call any of us to “give up” things. Rather, He calls us to simply give. Paradoxically, Jesus also teaches, when we give, we receive rich blessings from God in return.

Today is the first day of the Lenten season. What shall we give to the needy this lent? In deciding, decide generously. After all, before us is the greatest of gifts. God gave us His only begotten Son. Regardless of your tradition, the celebration of Easter calls us to reflect and respond.