I remember in the good old days back at my parochial school a paralyzing fear would come over me the week before lent. That’s when it sunk in that fun time was over, it’s time to get serious, I had to figure out what I was giving up for Lent. I had to show that I loved Jesus more than the other kids in my class by giving up something huge! Other kids in my class valiantly gave up big things like watching television, which I could not wrap my little brain around for the life of me. Why did Jesus not want me to watch the Smurfs or He-Man? He’s God, He should know how cool they are and that watching them made me happy which in turn secured happiness for my family. Because when Judy aint happy aint nobody happy! So with television not being an option to give up I went for the default sacrifice and when asked I stated I was giving candy up for Lent.
What happened more than not is that what I gave up changed so frequently that I never really missed any of my candy cause I could not keep my sacrifices straight. I would give up Snickers one week and then change to going cold turkey on skittles; so I ended up eating candy to my hearts content while other boys and girls went around looking all emaciated and sad.
For awhile I thought I was near genius level when I thought of the perfect thing to give up for Lent, VEGTEBELES! But, my mom obviously was trying to keep me from my Lenten journey and would always shoot down that idea.
As I got older I would use Lent as a good excuse for an array of things. “Hey Judy can you take out the trash? Sorry mom, gave it up for Lent.” Or I would make blanket statements like, “This Lent I will not kill any hitchhikers!” Do you see now why my religious teachers all took “early retirements”!
Not to mention the only time you really want a hamburger is during a Friday in Lent. In my more immature years my favorite thing to do was to let my friends order their food first and let them take that first big bite into their hamburger before announcing, “gee it’s Friday, wow, you got a mouthful of damnation in your mouth there, how’s that taste?” But now I am older and more mature, wait no, sorry, I gave up lying for Lent.
This Lent my spiritual director told me he would kill me if I gave up candy for Lent. Lent is not about giving things up and making those around you miserable. It’s about looking at your life and seeing what is keeping you from Jesus. This Lent I am looking at the marvel that is Judy and honestly asking, what in my life is keeping me from getting closer to Jesus.
If you honestly look and see that, ya, maybe eating 90 Hershey bars a day is causing you to go into a sugar coma and sleep for days at a time, which causes you to over sleep and miss mass, which causes you to not be in touch with Jesus by all means give up Candy for Lent!
Peace in the Mid-West
