Lent - A Time for Truth

Lent - why bother? If I take the spiritual discipline of Lent seriously, it will eat into my already overburdened schedule. Maybe I can just give up chocolate or beer (at least I get Sundays off!).

But to really work on my spirituality, on myself, with prayer and study - I just don't know . . . Hence the biggest temptation of Lent comes right at the beginning - do I really want to devote the time and energy to it?

I feel that Lent 2004 is incredibly important for us to observe with sober and directed effort. This was made all the more urgent to me as I partially watched the Super Bowl halftime show. I'm not referring to how tawdry and excessive the show was; I was bothered by what the show wasn't .

The Super Bowl is probably the one time of year that the whole world gets a glimpse of our culture. The world can see what is important to us, what we value, and where we place our attention. In 2002, the producers of the Super Bowl presented a halftime show that was a moving remembrance of those who perished in the attacks on September 11, 2001.

What did we have this year? People who appeared to be rutting and reduced to their basic animal nature.

What didn't we have this year? Any inkling that our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, employees, and employers are dying in a war thousands of miles away - a war that we now know was based on erroneous information.

We did not have any semblance of remorse at the death of an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Iraqi civilians. We did not even act as though there was a war happening. As a society, can we sink any lower than this?

Personally I was appalled by how callous and uncaring we citizens of the United States must have appeared to the rest of the world. Hence the real need for this timely period of Christian reflection called Lent.

There was one spiritually deadly item that was exposed in the Super Bowl halftime show: denial. Denial spins us off into a fantasy world of our own creation where we can ignore the ugly realities of our everyday world.

Today, denial starts at Dover Air Force Base, where the news media is forbidden by our government to respectfully receive our fallen as they return home. A simple question: Don't those who have given their lives for our country deserve this modicum of respect? Or is it more important that their dead bodies be kept out of sight and therefore out of mind?

This is the height of denial. And this national example is so easy to emulate on a personal level.

Now is the time for brutal honesty with ourselves as a nation and with ourselves as individuals. Lent does not call us to be bound up in religious rules and obligations. Lent calls us to be free - Jesus tells us that truth will sever our bonds.

In this time of sober reflection, do a fearless personal inventory. Bravely face those dark, troubling places inside. In that exploration you will not be alone, for God is with us and gives us the confidence we need to root out any festering denial that attempts to imprison us in lies.

Joel t