My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Every year the season of Lent raises two fairly simple questions in the minds of many Catholics. First, what do I have to give up, and, secondly, do I have to observe my Lenten fast on Sundays?
The answer to the second, oddly, seems to be no. Sundays are not counted as days of Lent - it is such an important day that nothing can take over from it, as it were, so if you count the Sundays of Lent you end up with more than 40 days. So, technically, you are allowed to stuff yourself with a week's supply of chocolate (for example) each Sunday. The disadvantage of this is that it makes Easter Sunday less exciting a prospect to look forward to.
But the more serious question is this: to what extent is giving up chocolate (or whatever) any sort of sacrifice? If, while you are giving it up you are at the same time storing it up, then what are the long-term effects of your Lenten fast?
I must make it clear now that I regard personal sacrifice as important. More than important, it is an integral part of the Christian life, because it is following the example of Christ.
A recent report from Church Action on Poverty presented people with a real challenge. It challenged people to do what a well-known Guardian journalist had done recently. She lived for six weeks on the national minimum wage. For those who are not familiar with it, it is 4.20 an hour or 155 a week or so. That might sound a lot in hard terms, but think of that as the living wage for a family. Or think when you most recently spent 155 as a lump sum - was it on clothes, a holiday flight, a meal, a gadget for the house? For a significant part of our society, this is a real issue, and our own society is part of the very small section of the world's population that can be regarded as affluent. For many, in other continents, 155 will be more like a year's income. We are part of a privileged minority, the small minority of the world's population that uses the vast majority of its material resources.
The personal benefits of such a bold venture, trying to live this way, would be two-fold. First of all it would force us to acknowledge that this is the way that many people within our own community live. Many find themselves then crippled by debts, debts incurred not in buying luxuries but buying food and clothes for children.
And the second consequence of this is that it would force us to examine our own way of life. We need to stop and think about our own spending and the standards we set for ourselves. The first words Jesus' preaching in Matthew's gospel, for instance - the Sermon on the Mount - get right to the heart of it. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Poverty is at the heart of so much else the Lord asks of us, and the challenge of Lent is, I think, rooted here. It is not about our waist-lines or about our will-power. It is to do with our standing in humility before God and acknowledging that we are poor, and showing him that we are willing to be poor as well.
I hope that your Lent is a fruitful spiritual journey into yourselves to find God there and that through it you come to a serene and joyful celebration of Easter.
God bless you all,
Rt. Rev. Kieran Conry
Bishop of Arundel and Brighton
