How is it that so many of our holidays, religious and otherwise revolve around food? Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Fourth of July, Easter to name a few, all involve social gathering and eating. Lent, on the other hand, often revolves around not eating. After we gorge ourselves on pancakes and sausages on Shrove Tuesday, we might momentarily feel like not eating for a week. We might even feel we can give up certain foods for forty days. The notion of fasting might even enter our minds.
Jesus considered it. In fact, the Latin name for Lent, Quadragesima, means forty or fortieth, and refers to the forty days Christ spent in the desert, fasting and praying, which is the origin of the Season. We in our humble ways pay tribute to this event during Lent. Most of us don’t truly fast, although that is a term that can be loosely interpreted. Does that mean you can only have water? Does that include eating small meals once or twice a day, or one larger meal at the end of the day? Are we still fasting if we just modify our diet, go meatless, if you will, and eat only vegetables, fruits, seafoods, salads, pastas, and beans? That actually sounds healthy. Hardly a sacrifice.
So what are we doing here? Giving up bad food, eating healthier food, feeling better. Maybe that’s what God intended!
Joan Shisler
As long as I can have some nice, velvety rich , dark chocolate in that diet!
ReplyDelete