We are just past mid-Lent. And, they are starting to crawl out of the dark, like Pithless Thoughts has documented in various cartoons lately. Who are they? They are the people who busily tell us how we ought to observe our Lent. They are the ones who know what additives are in every food that we eat so as to avoid the contamination of a forbidden food. They can turn even an experienced priest into a quaking mass of excuses as to why he does not preach every jot and tittle of the ancient fasting regulations.
But, no, I am not going to rail on about Pharisees. Mind you, there is no doubt that various of the people involved in the approach to fasting outlined above are indeed, and in every sense, Pharisees of the type that Our Lord Jesus Christ would have condemned. But, there is another side of the story. And that is that in America we can always find reasons as to why we need not do what we are asked to do. I am as guilty of that as any other American. Thus, we see Pharisees even where there are no Pharisees.
So, our priest can gently say that we ought to make a decision of the will to conform ourselves this Lent more and more to what the Fathers would have expected of us. We promptly accuse him of being a legalist and a Pharisee. In other words, we have memorized certain Scriptures, even as the Protestants we decry have, in order to be able to defend ourselves against our own conscience. You see, the Holy Spirit does speak to our conscience. The conscience of every Christian is informed by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus. And when we realize that the Holy Spirit is calling us to a deeper commitment to fasting, prayer, and service, we promptly console ourselves by either accusing our priest of being a legalist or by quoting those Church Fathers that superficially appear to be saying that the discipline of the Church is not important.
Let me repeat again, I see those very tendencies in my own life. I, too, find excuses for not truly keeping the fast. I am the sinner who sees a Pharisee lurking behind every call of the Church to discipline and self-control. But, just maybe, may God grant me the grace to obey a little better this Lent. So, this Lent, brothers and sisters, pray for me that I may observe a truly Holy Lent. And pray for yourselves that the same may be true of you.
I thought you meant the McRib!
Well, you Eastern Rite types seem to have the strictest observance of Lent. And you’ve said yourself that the Orthodox way of flaking out is to go overboard into X-treme Monastic Asceticism without taking actual vows. Put the two together and you have the More Lenten Than Thou sniffing around for Apostates.