I doubt God is impressed by denial or penance. But even if he were, I doubt he would look forward to a Lenten season that is fasting and self-imposed sadness. It is not a time to see how much we can beat, starve, or humiliate ourselves -- if for no other reason than it would leave us too weak to celebrate Easter. And maybe Lent is not even some of the positive practices we suggest, especially when they have about them an air of self-defeat. We are not bad people who needed to feel our lack of worth. Better to make the celebration of Lent the practice of what Isaiah suggested: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke, setting free those oppressed, breaking every yoke, sharing our bread with the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked when you see them and not turning your back on your own.
These are not sad and oppressive things denying our Godness, but are instead the love and faith and sharing that should better characterize who we have become through God's sharing with us, his freeing of us to see and value who we have always been. Such a celebration of Lent, and perhaps of each day, is the furthering of Easter rather than a dreading of our unworthiness of it.
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