Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

I wonder if you found it hard to make a Lenten fast this year? Did you give something up for Lent? Take on some new practice?

After the year we have had it seemed a high bar to clear to think of something else to give up to be honest. I managed to cobble together some Lenten discipline but it was, I am not ashamed to say, not an easy thing to do at all this year.

I have typically, for most of my life, thought of a Lenten fast as giving up something that I probably shouldn't be doing so much anyway. So it might be to give up something like sugar, or swearing, or driving over the speed limit (yes, these are all things I have given up for Lent in the past)! The question is, though, after Lent is it such a great idea to gorge on sugar, swear up a storm, and rack up speeding tickets?

Lent, for many of us, becomes another exercise in self-improvement. But the Lenten fast is really about putting down something we can pick back up with real, joyful exuberance as part of the celebration of Easter. We pair our renewed hope with a refreshed enjoyment of the things that are part of life's celebrations. So perhaps you celebrate with a glass of champagne or the like after staying away from alcohol for Lent. Maybe you do get yourself that extra bit of cake or the like.

Most of us though pick things we probably are better off not picking back up. Worse, we pick things back up without looking at the underlying reasons we were feeling pulled to give them up. The scale might tell you to put down the sugar. But it might take real work to figure out why we're feeling such an undeniable urge to overeat. We might have been told a time or two that our swearing was upsetting - but who can tell us why we are so quick to be so angry in the first place?

What most of us need to pick back up is not the bad habits we should be laying down anyway. What most of us need to reclaim is two things. First, a rededication to the joy of the Resurrection. Second, a commitment to live our lives and make our choices in light of that joy. That is the discipline of Easter. The fast of Easter is to discern where the joy and wonder of our faith is being crowded out by the unexamined, unrestrained, and unquestioned fears, anxieties, and anger that cause so many of the very things we need to leave behind in Lent.

The Lenten fast is an anticipation of the joy of Easter - it is denying ourselves something we long to pick back up as a celebration. The Easter fast is different - it is first a feast. It is a feast of such joy that living its truth crowds out the sin-weariness of our normal days. What will you be taking back up with joy this Easter? What shadows will you be happy to see recede in the light of Christ's love?

From what must you fast that you can truly feast?

May this week mark the turn so many of us long for in our faith lives. May its careening, irresistible, untrammeled joy catch you by surprise. May its story of heartache, betrayal, and new life give you a deeper sense of Christ's presence with us through all of those same realities in our own lives.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert