Heresy: Hey, it’s not wrong, it’s just not a great idea…
Benjamin GayedLent is a liturgical “season” on the Christian calendar which, in most denominations, begins with Ash Wednesday continuing through Holy Saturday and culminating the following day, Easter Sunday. This occurs around mid-February through March on our calendars. The Lenten season is forty days, at least in Western Christianity, as Sundays are not counted. It is a time for disciples of Christ to prepare themselves to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ during the Holy Week. This preparation is traditionally accomplished through prayer, fasting, charity and self-denial.
In recent decades, protestant denominations have also begun to embrace Lent, though more often as an optional or casual observance than as a prescribed practice. Liturgical denominations have a schedule of fasting and feasting throughout the season. There are also changes to the liturgical mass during this season. Certain hymns such as Gloria in Excelsis Deo and Alleluia are omitted from the mass until after Easter. In the liturgical practice, there is a balanced focus on prayer, fasting, charity and self-denial. This balance is prescribed with the goal of preparation for Holy Week in mind. For protestant observers, the Lenten observance too often resembles another New Year’s Resolution with a focus only on self-denial. As the wife of a good friend of mine recently told me, Lent was an excuse for girls in her high school to become anorexic for 40 days.
This imbalanced approach to the Lent season turns the focus of the season away from Christ and onto the practitioner. The result is a reduced significance of the season to new generations of Christians, both Protestant and Catholic. This is not to mention how this practice may affect the perceived significance of the death and resurrection of Christ to new Christians. It is also a testament to the relativist mindset. In other words, no “belief” is sacred; each might apply to anyone who gravitates toward it for no particular reason, which quickly leads to the idea that a belief is only as valuable as what is accomplishes for the believer, an entirely selfish standpoint.
It is no surprise in light of these sentiments that the most popular (most widely, or at least most loudly, embraced) event related to the Lenten season is the pre-Lenten festival, known as Carnival, which culminates in the United States on Mardi Gras. This is French for “Fat Tuesday”. The idea here, if you did not already know, is to have one last hurrah for gluttony before beginning discipline and self-denial. Anywhere from 3 days up to several weeks of anything-goes partying. This was not always the case. It is thought that the carnival tradition pre-dates Christianity, and that many pagan or secular holidays already in existence were somewhat influenced or encouraged to adapt to the imposition of the Lenten season. The meanings for these festivals and their respective dates varied from culture to culture, but they have coalesced into modern Carnival, though the name, associated dates and other traditions of Carnival may still vary with the country in which it is held.
I understand the drive to create such a festival. Any celebration has its contrasting pain and sorrow. What is celebration but an escape from mundane at best? Though I reject that idea that there can be no good without the existence of evil, I am more amenable to the idea that happiness and sorrow amplify one another. This is why a life of constant fun and games would grow tiresome and unrewarding without work and discipline to lead you to appreciate their absence. Happiness and sorrow go hand-in-hand, at least at present, which is why Carnival and Lent have been associated as they have. Those who practice Lent will certainly appreciate Carnival more, and it would seem that the reverse is true as well. However, this does not mean that the Carnival tradition is good, or that it benefits to the Lent season in any meaningful way.
The meaning of modern-day Carnival is created by the existence of Lent. Celebrating Carnival without observing Lent will not foster appreciation for either Lent or Carnival. It seems fair to say that people who celebrate Carnival without observance of Lent have no business doing so. It is my suspicion that cutting ties between Lent and the pre-Lenten festivals would be a step towards purifying the Lenten season. It would be a start to re-focusing the season on Christ, and re-establishing the balance between self-denial, charity, prayer and fasting.
A more difficult question regarding further purification of the season is whether Protestants should observe Lent outside of the structure of a liturgical doctrine. Heresy is a belief or practice at odds with the orthodox position. The orthodox practice of Lent is a liturgical one, and it may be questioned whether anyone observing Lent outside of the framework of a liturgical Christian denomination is approaching the season with the appropriate balance of prayer, fasting, charity and self-denial. The only support I have to offer that this balance is the “best” or perhaps, only correct way, to observe the Lenten season is the tradition of the Catholic Church to purify the sacraments through time. The danger in practicing outside of these recommendations is that freelance observers of Lent may be swayed to sin without proper guidance.
Having said that though, it is important to remember that heresy is defined by the church and is relative to the church’s ideas. It seems entirely possible that one might be heretical in practice and holy at the same time. Don’t forget, the meaning of the season is to focus and prepare the believers for the Holy Week, and what authority does the Church ultimately have to speak into whether this is being done appropriately or not? My conclusion is that Lent is a practice best observed within the framework of liturgical church doctrine, but it is not wrong to do so outside of this, though in Carnival we can see the path toward immorality that may result from the disconnection of discipline from celebration. More generally, we see Carnival and its relation to Lent as an example of the dangers of heresy.
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
“The essential difference between Christian and Pagan asceticism lies in the fact that Paganism in renouncing pleasure gives up something which it does not think desirable; whereas Christianity in giving up pleasure gives up something it thinks very desirable indeed.” G. K. Chesterton
The Pagan is sad, because he parties for one reason, and abstains for another. There is no unity to his actions through the calendar years. One day for one god, another for another. Nothing to make sense of the two. He has no reason to give up something he truly likes- there is no overarching, transcendent spiritual benefit in doing so. All there is, is another competing reason. Thus the modern, American Pagan knows not why he goes to Mardi Gras, knows not why he diets on Lent. All he knows is that there are raging desires in his nature, desires for fornication, debauchery, drunkenness, irresponsibility, and also desires to be physically fit, self-controlled, temperate, etc. The Pagan soul is at war with itself. Whereas the Christian soul has a transcendent reason to have a party, has a transcendent reason to sacrifice something truly pleasurable and good. The lesser is sacrificed for the higher, but in so doing, the lesser is itself validated and re-plenished.
“Certain hymns such as Gloria in Excelsis Deo and Alleluia are omitted from the mass until after Easter.”
… thanks Benji. Last week at mass, before the third reading, the gospel, I was wondering what was going on!
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:55 pm
We observe Lent at my protestant church. The pastors deliberately emphasize that the “self-denial” aspect of observing Lent is for the purpose of making room for God’s grace in your life. The idea is to make a hole in your routine and to fill it with prayer, meditation, and scripture reading. We don’t follow any prescribed dietary constraints or anything, but I don’t see an imbalance in the process. On the contrary, I have noticed a much improved balance in my life. I have given up playing games on my computer and have found that I have had much more time to pray because of it. Computer games aren’t sinful or mutually exclusive with prayer, but the hole in my life has, in a sense, distracted me toward God. The general practice at our church is to choose to give up something that is perhaps out of balance and consuming too much of your life. So generally, the observance of Lent at my church results in an increase in an improved balance and perspective in people’s lives and is healthy for our congregation.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I have thought of another difference between Pagan and Christian asceticism, beyond the aforementioned idea of various intentions warring against one another in the soul.
Not only are the Pagan’s reasons at variance with one another, but they arise ultimately ’suis generis’, on their own, of themselves, and for themselves. The sacrifice serves the intention, but the intention ultimately serves itself, or perhaps in the best cases, it serves some abstract idea of happiness, toward which all men direct the practical choices of the will.
But ideally the intentions of the Christian are free from this inward, self-referential pattern which is the mark of Eastern religion and asceticism. Making sacrifices for the sake of spiritual progress hides a Pagan intention. But the intention to glorify God breaks out of this circular wheel, like the perpendicularities of a cross breaking out of a circle. True Christians give up that which they think desirable, because God who created that thing, is more desirable indeed. But the thing itself isn’t necessarily eclipsed altogether, instead it is replenished by its higher metaphysical origin. John, I think what you have called ‘balance’ and ‘perspective’ is precisely the idea of a non-dualistic source of goodness, which through sacrifice, renews itself in the world.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
John,
I have had similar experiences with self-denial. I did not mean to imply that self-denial is a bad thing. I did mean to give the Catholic church credit enough to assume that the prescribed Catholic practices are often more balanced even if I do not immediately see why. I think an appropriate analogy might be a shoe and its laces. You can still wear a shoe without the laces, but it functions better if you tie it. I trust the tradition of the church to figure out what those laces might be and I simultaneously recognize that “the road to evil is paved with good intentions.” In other words, what you are describing may be fine now, but all heresy springs out from orthodoxy. I am just trying to point out the departure from orthodoxy so that we can make sure we keep the point of the practice in perspective.