I Gave it Up for Lent
by Christopher Check
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My good friends at Catholic Answers in San Diego invited me to be a guest on their excellent radio program last Monday to discuss the tensions between being a “good” American and “good” Catholic. You can listen to the show at their website, although in one short hour, host Patrick Coffin and I hardly scratched the surface of this complex and undertreated subject. The Americanist heresy came up, and the near convergence of that discussion with the start of Lent brings into focus for me the problem with a practice present even among tradition-minded Catholics. I am referring to each person’s selecting his or her own private sacrifice to observe during this holy season. Mom gives up TV while her teenage son gives up video games. Little sister gives up chocolate, and Dad gives up booze.
The family in the example illustrates one problem with this idea: the temptation to spiritual pride. Obviously the father is going to believe that his sanctity far outstrips that of his whole family combined since his is the only real sacrifice. There is, however, a deeper difficulty, and no, I do not mean that we should “emphasize the positive.” I am not about to suggest that instead of giving up something, you should smile at a stranger or compliment three people each day, although, truth be told, some of us would find those actions strenuous. The difficulty is that everyone’s selecting his own private mortification is individualistic. It is Americanist.
When Pope Leo XIII, reacting to a biography of transcendentalist-turned-priest Fr. Isaac Hecker, took to task Cardinal Gibbons in Baltimore and Archbishop Ireland in Saint Paul in 1899 with his encyclical Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae, he was rejecting a growing enthusiasm among the American clergy and episcopacy for conforming the practices and tenets of a dogmatic, hierarchal, and corporate Church with liberal democracy and with the error that is at its core: individualism. (It cannot be an accident that one of Fr. Isaac Hecker’s Paulists today runs an organization vainly trying to square Catholic Social Teaching with liberal economic theory.)
While everyone’s choosing his or her own Lenten sacrifice is not as bad as priests making up their own version of the Mass or Catholic university presidents permitting the staging of lesbian-advocacy plays in the name of individual expression, we can see how Pope Leo saw that a little democracy would go a long way. A long way toward chaos, that is, and the best defense against chaos is unity, which word has the same root as universal, which, as any Catholic grammar school child of my father’s generation could tell you, is exactly what “Catholic” means.
And when my father was a child, all Catholics, all good ones, anyway, observed the same rules for fasting and abstaining throughout Lent, and these proscriptions were demanding and worthy of Christian persons who were serious about growing in holiness as they prepared for the greatest of all the liturgical feasts. The merits of the old rules are easy to understand. They are, first and foremost, designed to help us to express our love of God for creating us out of nothing and for, through a continuous act of His will, keeping us in existence. They are designed to help us conquer the passions that ever try to take over our hearts and fog our minds. They are given from the top down for those of us—myself, chief among them—who would seek some easier course. And they are given to all men so that in and by their common practice all men are more closely united in the Mystical Body of Christ.
Catholics today, all Christians, really, very much see the world as the world sees itself, not as the Church sees it, which is as God does. We have, as Fr. Feeney observed, “adopted, more than we are willing to admit, the moods of the pagans and the manners of the heretics in whose midst we live.” Fr. Feeney wrote at a time when Catholics lived much more apart from the world than do we; they were the odd folks who ate fish (actually, abstained from meat) on all Fridays, not simply those of Lent. Catholics once stood so apart from the general culture that their power to influence it was immense: a once-thriving parochial school system and the control that the Legion of Decency exercised on the film industry are two examples. To be sure, no age is perfect, and the martyrs who transformed Rome in Christ would have a thing or two to show pre-conciliar American Catholics about transforming a culture, but we have come so far from unity, that a united front is out of the question, whether it unites against the moral rot of our unbelieving age, an unjust foreign policy or economic practice, or against Islam.
More than a century ago, Leo XIII anticipated what few Catholics today even recognize: the wretched effects of individualism on the Church. The admirable “Catholics Come Home” campaign launched earlier this year will bear fruit if Catholics recognize that individualism leads to insanity. As the female half of the morning team on a “lite rock” station that will remain unnamed explained on Ash Wednesday to her co-host, she wanted her children to have religion and believe in God and all that, but however and in whatever way they saw fit, and so she left the Catholic Church with all its rules and rituals to become a Methodist, but no, she does not go to church very often, and no, certainly not, she does not give up anything for Lent.
We are not so far from the age when everyone gave up the same thing for Lent and on the same days, and there are yet places where one can see the uniting effects of common mortifications, customs, and practices. Two that are dear to me and to The Rockford Institute are Saint Gregory’s Academy and St. Michael’s Abbey. Saint Gregory’s is a boy’s boarding school outside of Scranton run by the unflappable Howard Clark and his band of merry men. Every boy plays rugby, every boy knows scores of songs by heart (some know hundreds), and every boy learns to serve the Mass of Pope Saint Pius V.
The prior of Saint Michael’s Abbey in Trabuco Canyon, California (which also runs a magnificent school for boys), is Fr. Hugh Barbour, a regular bright light at our Summer Schools and in the pages of Chronicles. If you ever visit Southern California and are able to spend some time in the company of the Abbey’s confreres, as I have had the good fortune to do many times, you will see how a life of common song, practice, and worship creates a Christian solidarity that can stand as the “sign of contradiction” Our Lord requires of us. And what culture is in greater need of such a sign than Orange County, California?
There is no good reason why the laity of the Church today cannot enjoy that same unity and solidarity that a few pockets of Christian sanity do. A revival of common Lenten mortifications would be a first and also a great step in that direction.
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1 Comment by James Kabala on 22 February 2010:
It is my understanding (the very name “Carnival” implies it, and I have seen references to it in other works) that there was a time when were meat was forbidden for Catholics throughout the entire period of Lent, as is still true among the Orthodox. However, I have never learned when exactly this practice came to an end. It seems to have been well before the twentieth century.
Does Mr. Check (or anyone else) know when the ban was ended, what reason was given, and why it seems to have caused no tumult in the Church (unlike the end of the Friday meat ban, which many saw as a drastic alteration of Catholic culture and which led to many ill-informed comments of the “If I can eat meat on Friday now, why can’t I use birth control” variety)?
2 Comment by robert on 22 February 2010:
“Which many saw as a drastic alteration of Catholic culture and which led to many ill-informed comments of the “If I can eat meat on Friday now, ….”
Yes, but abruptly changing habits to achieve a different or more “enlightened end,” has never been a Christian practice. From the beginning it was not encouraged to allow one jot or tittle of the old law of justice to pass away, in order to put on the new and merciful heart of everlasting life. Most folks actually do things because they have always been done that way or because they learned to do them a certain way, and those who believe in such practices (without always seeing the full reason of why) are sometimes as commendable as “those who have seen and only then believe.” It must be a matter of respect for the past instead of a contempt for it that requires constant innovations. Luckily we are so ignorant of our past we may even repeat or rediscover alot of it in one our life, just as a blind man can become more quickly familiar with his old home, than he can a newer one.
3 Comment by Barbara Samuel on 22 February 2010:
Is it possible that knitting philosophies and faith together can
cause dropped stitches? Not as a catholic but a Christian this writer
found it to be true. Jesus Christ spoke to individuals, the woman
at Jacob’s well, which was considered not the rule. He also did not
ask to see the man who was with the woman caught in adultery before
the crowd who brought her. That is the first question those in our secular society want to ask for assumption or for judgment.
The definition of catholic was coined by St. Ignasius of the 1st century, another martyr cast among the lions in Rome. That meaning
would be: according to, or whole. If this is not the case, a correction is in order.
Thank you for your essay Mr. Check.
4 Comment by Bruce on 22 February 2010:
“Burger King Christianity” as in “you can have it your way.”
5 Comment by robert on 22 February 2010:
Barbara,
My post @2 was to draw a distinction between unity and uniformity and against the liberation theology of Christ as revolutionary. Perhaps I have been reading too much of Pope Benedicts’ Jesus of Nazareth, but it does seem to me that Christ came to perfect and not destroy the ancient orders understanding of blessedness,mercy and justice. But like all men of good will, if what I write disturbs ones peace of mind, please ignore it as it was not so intended.
6 Comment by John Gillis on 22 February 2010:
But, but…rugby?
7 Comment by Chuck on 22 February 2010:
When I grew up in Rockford, everything in my life revolved around St. Patrick’s parish. I went to St. Pat’s School, was in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts there, and was an altar boy and member of Knights of the Altar. I reached the rank of Knight Commander.
That and my home — in a nearby subdivision developed by the church, where the streets were named after Catholic bishops — was my world. On spring and summer evenings, the Dominican sisters would walk, two-by-two, through the subdivision and talk to the children who played on the sidewalks and sometimes in the streets. (there weren’t many cars.)
Talk about couterculture! It was, in retrospect, a great world to be in, and I don’t recall feeling oppressed.
8 Comment by Fr. Steven Allen on 22 February 2010:
Re Mr. Kabala’s post. You can find a brief overview of the Western Christian fasting practices at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05789c.htm. The Roman Catholic author of this article, writing in 1909, notes that the fasting discipline in the RC Church of his time was by then already much reduced from the ancient practice. Vat II and its aftermath did not suddenly destroy the ancient discipline, but rather replaced an already extremely light – indeed, vestigial – fasting regimen with virtually nothing.
Interesting to note: Sigrid Undset in her magnificent *Kristin Lavransdatter* (accurately) depicts 14th century Norsemen abstaining not only from meat but also from dairy products, as well as marital relations, during Lent. The Catechism of the Council of Trent states that married couples should abstain from the marital act for three days before receiving Communion. Well into the 19th century, there were places where Roman Catholics abstained from meat on Wednesdays as well as Fridays. Lo, how the mighty are fallen.
9 Comment by Christopher Check on 23 February 2010:
Thank you to Chuck and to Fr. Allen for their posts which are rich beyond their word count.
Chuck, your description is not to be believed by anyone under 50 were it not for the fact that we have heard so many similar accounts, and we know that it is God’s design for parish neighborhoods and the active live of the parishioners within them. Two things about your post that make the loss more acute: your mentioning that your neighborhood was actually developed by the Parish– doubtless, low interest loans for the laboring Catholic Irish who once made up Rockford’s West Side. Social Justice at its finest. Your mention of Dominican Sisters is also heartbreaking. These essential players in the economy of salvation are all but gone. I recommend to all to discover the Benedictines of Mary in Kansas City. Priories such as these will be the salvation of Christendom.
Fr. Allen’s mention of the greatest book ever written by a woman gives me a chance to announce that Undset’s life of Catherine of Siena is back in print thanks to Ignatius Press. It may be my favorite work of hagiography, but it is also an excellent lesson in 14th Century Tuscan and Church history. Undset, among other things, points out the importance of extended family ties especially in times of social unrest, a theme readers of Tom Fleming will appreciate.
In his excellent essay on KRISTEN LAVRANSDATTER, Andrew Lytle reflects on the closeness to reality that Christians of Medieval Norway experienced. The Liturgical Calendar and the agricultural one were in full harmony. To be sure, people worked very hard, but they saw the world as God sees it. Another age about which we might say the same thing is Anglo-Saxon England, the topic of our forthcoming Summer School: July 6-11.
If you come, we can take a tour of Chuck’s old neighborhood. St. Patrick’s recently briefly enjoyed a liturgical restoration under the young and devout Fr. Brian Geary, who said the Old Mass but has since been moved to Belvedere. The practice of moving priests around also must be Americanist. It certainly works against stability: the stability of the priest and of his flock. But heh, that’s America–upwardly mobile…
10 Comment by Barbara Samuel on 23 February 2010:
Robert of #2 and #5: Understanding how some meaning is lost in
commentaries addressing essays, this is not meant to from
sarcasm in response to you. Brought to Catholicism in baptism and
then educated at three years of age to confirmation in the tradition of Lutheranism, luck is a word that has been replaced by blessed in my thinking.
Christopher Check’s essay as well as your reply to me are both
appreciated.
11 Comment by Barbara Samuel on 23 February 2010:
#5 Robert: Yes, Christ was by no means a philosopher or a
revolutionist, but He did bring freedom as St. Paul testified
along with the other apostles.
12 Comment by robert on 23 February 2010:
@10 “luck is a word that has been replaced by blessed in my thinking.”
Well Mrs. Samuels you are way ahead of most folks because at least you have asked the simplest and most serious question, ” What is it?” As in, but for the grace of God go ..” I wish some day Dr. Fleming would take some words like Heaven,Hell, Blessed, Sanctity, Holy,Happiness, Sinfulness, Sacred, Divine, Revelation, Grace, Conversation,Discussion, etc. and give each of us the etymology lesson from the Hebrew, Greek and Latin. It would certainly be a corporal work of mercy for those of us who thirst for a better understanding of such things and for such questions as you have raise. God Bless.
PS. It is said of Ceasar that he too had a good dose of luck and pluck.
13 Comment by Andrew G Van Sant on 23 February 2010:
I won’t go into the details, but the ideal for Orthodox Christians is to abstain from meat, dairy, fish with a backbone (shell fish are permitted), oil and wine (alcohol in general), and sexual relations for the lenten period (the 40 days prior to Palm Sunday) and Holy Week (which is not part of lent). There are also restrictions on quantities of food. (Almost no food is eaten the first week of lent.) The restrictions on quantities and abstention from oil and wine are relaxed on Saturdays and Sundays. Orthodox Christians also fast (which includes abstaining) on Wednesdays and Fridays during the entire year, as well as other periods that include, but are not limited to: The Fast of the Apostles (Monday after All Saints’ Sunday — the Sunday next after Pentecost — until 29 June), The Fast of the Theotokos (1 August – 14 August), and The Advent (Before Christmas) fast (15 November – 24 December).
Marking all of the fast days on a calendar for the entire year is an eye opener! Trying to achieve the ideal is a struggle. Doing the best one can is encouraged.
14 Comment by Andrew G Van Sant on 23 February 2010:
I just followed Fr. Allen’s link. I had to chuckle when I saw an ad at the bottom of the page by Long John Silver’s restaurant aimed at Catholics informing them there was no need to go hungry during lent. (Apparently the ads rotate, so you may not be able to find it.) (I have mixed feelings about lenten cook books. The idea is to suffer a little, not enjoy great vegitarian cuisine.)
15 Comment by robert II on 23 February 2010:
#13 MR. Van Zant,
These rules are very similar to the Carthusian practices in the West; The one religious order in the West that has never been reformed. One of their holy monks once said a few years ago that there was a time in France when 77 Charterhouses were not enough and now three was too many. But it didn’t seem to concern him too much. I guess after eight hundred years of doing the same thing day in and day out, one learns where hope is to be found. There is even one located in the United States and I even hear it has at least ten good men which should make all of us sleep a little better during the night.
16 Comment by Fr. Steven Allen on 23 February 2010:
#13 Mr. Van Zant
Marking all the Orthodox fast days this year is especially eye-opening, since this is the earliest Pascha (Easter) will fall in our lifetimes – 22 March OS. The last time it was this early was in 1915. Because of the extremely early Easter, the Fast of the Holy Apostles will last 42 days – 18 May OS through 28 June OS! Of course, many Orthodox do not keep the fasts properly or at all, but, as your post implies, at least the ancient norms are still taught by the Church. Also, many DO keep the fasts. Last week, I buried a Romanian lady who, from childhood until she was into her late ’70’s kept the strict fast on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, eating only one lenten meal after three in the afternoon. She learned this from her parents, with whom she walked for six miles one way to go to church every Sunday. Some of us have known monks who literally lived on Holy Communion and water throughout Great Lent. “Where God so wills, the order of nature is overruled.”
#9 Mr. Check
Some Romanians still live the life Andrew Lytle’s essay celebrates, particularly in traditional villages in Moldavia which are still both agrarian and influenced heavily by the monastic ethos. I often threaten my wife with a plan to retire in Iasi, so that we can live within the vicinity of real people, and in a place that is really a place, as Walker Percy would say.
Re Sigrid Undset and St. Catherine of Siena: A touchingly zealous young ultramontane friend of mine threatens to give me this very biography, claiming that it will convert me to Catholicism. I doubt it; it does, however, sound like a wonderful book.
I seem to recall that Sigrid Undset was an admirer of Jefferson Davis. Does anyone know anything about this?
17 Comment by Christopher Check on 24 February 2010:
Father Allen–
In the preface to JEFFERSON DAVIS, UNCONQUERABLE HEART, Felicity Allen writes that it was Undset who encouraged Hudson Strode to write his (thee volume?) biography. Strode’s version makes extensive use of previously unused correspondence (50,000 pieces by Allen’s account). Undset developed an interest in Davis while she was living in America. I seem to think the Allen book was once reviewed in Chronicles, but I am not positive.
Professor Wilson, if he is following this thread, might lend his expertise.
I have written a very short reader review of the Catherine of Siena hagiography at Amazon. Please tell your admirable and noble friend that he can now buy you a copy!
http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-Siena-Sigrid-Undset/product-reviews/1586174088/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
18 Comment by Fr. Steven Allen on 24 February 2010:
Of course, this is where I read it. Thank you. By the way, Felicity Allen (no relation) is Eastern Orthodox, according to Franklin Sanders, with whom I once discussed the Davis biography. I shall not tell my young friend, however, fearing that he may bombard her also with Sigrid Undset bios of RC saints, green scapulars, and Miraculous Medals.
19 Comment by Christopher Check on 24 February 2010:
Father–
You’d better not tell her that Jefferson Davis wore a scapular!
(I suspect she already knows.)
20 Comment by Art on 24 February 2010:
Great article, and I really appreciate the notion of sacrifice as a common Body. I only wish an example had been provided as to how Mr. Check would propose Lenten sacrifices to be exercised. What exactly would he propose? Is the family supposed to come up with family sacrifices? Is the parish priest supposed to announce a common sacrifice amongst the parishioners? I’m trying to understand how this would work? And what is the origin of this practice? Has it been proposed in an encyclical at some point? Or is this something that Mr. Check grew up with, perhaps, in his local community? I like the idea (to an extent), but wonder what the guidance is from the Church?
As for individualism, I too agree that America has gone overboard on viewing themselves as individuals rather than people that make up the Body of Christ, the Church. But I think it is also inherent that humans make individual choices. Sometimes that choice will be to join a group in common sacrifice. At other times it may not be. St. Therese united her most mundane daily chores to the suffering of Christ. That’s quite individualistic. So I don’t think that merely being an individual is the problem. More to the point, it’s NOT seeing ourselves as part of the Body of Christ (the Church). We are, indeed, both individuals and members of the Church. After all, God did give us individual souls with free will, and a universal Church in which to satisfy our desire to be with Him.
21 Comment by Gilbert Jacobi on 24 February 2010:
Anyone who thinks giving up chocolate entails less sacrifice than giving up booze obviously:
I. Is insensible to the finer things in life
II. Is innocent of anything more than intoxication’s first chaste flirtations
22 Comment by robert on 24 February 2010:
#20 Art “I like the idea (to an extent), but wonder what the guidance is from the Church?”
Art,
I always assumed the tradition of sack cloth and ashes came from Jona and Nineveh. After the Incarnation,however, it was affirmed that it came earlier when the prophet said, “Take me forth and cast me into the sea, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.” This is probably why humble individualism has never been nearly as popular in the world as the more rugged variety. Cheers
23 Comment by Christopher Check on 24 February 2010:
Dear Art–
Thank you for your kind words and good insights. I am proposing only a return to the somewhat more rigorous rules for fast and abstinence as they appeared in the 1917 Code of Canon Law, and as they were clarified in 1949, and before they were eased by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1966. You can find an excellent description of these in the front of the Roman Catholic Daily Missal printed by Angelus Press. I was born in 1966. I did not grow up with these observances, but, as I wrote in the piece, one of the (many) merits of them came into clearer focus for me after discussing Americanism on the radio with my friends at Catholic Answers.
I am a supporter of private mortifications. I have to commend my Opus Dei formation in this regard, because, like the Little Flower, Josemaria Escriva (and Francis de Sales before both of them) encouraged little sacrifices: getting out of bed when the alarm goes off, not leaving dishes in the sink at the end of the day, skipping desert, holding your peace, eating half of dinner, etc. I am not really an enthusiast for web-based “communities” but there is one in which husbands fast once a week for their marriages. Things like this are of great value in the economy of grace.
My point about the common practices, however, was the sense of Catholic solidarity they reinforce. There is this very sense in the Fr. Feeney essay, “Fish on Fridays,” which is why I quoted it, his particular difficulties with the Holy See, notwithstanding.
Mr. Jacobi, if you come to our Summer School, I’ll see if I can’t scare up a Hershey bar for you, though I have the sense you appreciate some variety beyond that. In the meantime, take the money you are not spending on chocolate and send it to Chronicles!
24 Comment by Andrew G Van Sant on 25 February 2010:
Fr. Allen @16: I now attend a local Greek Orthodox Church and I get the feeling from the Pastor’s comments that most of those attending do not keep the fasts. Previously, I attended a smaller Antiochian Church where almost the entire congregation made an effort to keep the fasts and we practiced many of the other Orthodox traditions. Especially moving was the forgiveness ceremony during Vespers on Forgiveness Sunday (Cheesefare Sunday – the Sunday before lent) during which each person present asked every other person present to forgive them for any offenses that they committed during the previous year. This was done one-on-one. One person would start by facing the pastor and they would ask each other in turn for forgiveness. The person would typically say to the Pastor, “Please forgive me for offending you in any way during the past year.” The Pastor would respond, “I forgive you; please forgive me for offending you in any way during the previous year.” The person would respond, “I forgive you.” The first person would then move to the Pastor’s right to form a line and the next person would exchange forgiveness with the Pastor and then move to the first person to exchange forgiveness while the third person would do the same with the Pastor. As each person passed down the continuously growing line, another person would join the procession, starting with the Pastor. After exchanging forgiveness with the last person in the line that formed to the Pastor’s right, you joined as the last person in the line. This process would continue until you had received and extended forgiveness from/to every other person present. Many would be in tears because of the relief experienced in forgiving and being forgiven. After doing this year after year the church members were more cooperative and forgiving with each other. They became a close knit community of worshipers. Here is a website that has some information on Forgiveness Sunday.
http://lent.goarch.org/forgiveness/learn/
25 Comment by Fr. Steven Allen on 25 February 2010:
Mr. Van Sant @ #24 Yes, the rite of forgiveness on Cheesefare/Forgiveness Sunday is very powerful. Every parish should do it. In my old Russian parish, we did it with a full prostration to each person. The Greeks don’t like it because they can’t bear humbling themselves in front of others, which is a tremendous spiritual problem.
Mr. Check @ #19 Mr. Davis’s lifelong sympathy for Catholicism, as well as the support he received during his Time of Troubles from many Roman Catholic religious and clergy – including Pius IX – is well-known. Too bad he never had the opportunity to be exposed to Orthodoxy.