Lent
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
1 Mar 2009
Lent started on last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday.
During the forty days of Lent, as Christians prepare for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, they should carry out an annual audit of personal faith and morals following the traditional practices of extra prayer, extra penances such as fasting and alms giving, donations to charity.
For the last forty years in Australia the Catholic Church has urged its members to couple the last two practices together so that we give to others what we might save on e.g. alcohol or food.
Caritas Australia, the Catholic agency for overseas relief and development, belongs to Caritas International, a loose federation which is one of the world's biggest aid organizations.
Project Compassion, Caritas' Lenten programme always does a good job. Last year it raised more than $9,000,000 Australia-wide with $2,500,000 coming from Sydney parishes and schools. Despite the economic downturn Caritas hopes to beat these targets this year.
Secular outsiders generally sympathize with Christian efforts to help the disadvantaged here in Australia, although they occasionally query the amount we give overseas. Our reply always is that while charity should begin at home it should not stay there.
Non-believers also recognize that a special once-a-year effort to curb selfishness might be useful, but they are often puzzled by the call for extra prayer and especially by the practice of fasting, dieting for religious purposes.
Many of us try to diet for health reasons (with mixed success), and many more should diet because obesity, even among children, is an increasing problem. The way to lose weight is very simple, but it is as difficult as it is simple: eat less and exercise more.
Fasting usually does bring health benefits except when it is too extreme, provoking e.g. bad headaches, but Christians don't fast for their physical health.
This year Pope Benedict devoted his annual Lenten message to the value and meaning of fasting. He pointed out that Jesus followed Jewish tradition by fasting in the desert for forty days before he began his public ministry, just as Moses had before he received the ten commandments and Elijah fasted and prayed before meeting God on Mount Horeb.
The Pope asked whether in the light of our advanced knowledge today it still made sense to deprive ourselves of food which is good and useful for our bodies. He replied in the affirmative, appealing to the Scriptures and ancient Jewish and Christian traditions.
The Pope observed that while we diet as a therapy for the body, fasting is a therapy for the soul, helping us to thin down our fat relentless egos so that we can better serve God and other people.
The small aches and inconveniences of fasting also serve as a helpful reminder of the millions in the world who are regularly hungry.
