By Fr Dexter Brereton, CSSp
Beloved in the Lord,
Yesterday, Carnival 2019 came to a wonderful climax in two days of merriment on our streets. Carnival traditionally has had the ability to generate enormous amounts of commentary and controversy. Whatever its origins in pagan and Christian Europe, the festival has the ability to present us with a portrait of who we are as a society in a very concentrated way over the whole season and especially on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
Many persons will question why anyone claiming to be Christian would go to church to ‘receive Ashes’ on Ash Wednesday after ‘participating in all that vice and debauchery.’ First, a lesson about judgement. Jesus said: “Do not judge, for with the judgement you make you will be judged.” (Matt 7: 1-2). It is erroneous to think that the Carnival festival causes sin or that somehow what we do at Carnival time is somehow different and special. The sins committed at Carnival are sins committed the entire year through and we would be fools to think otherwise. It is important to remember that for us human beings, it is impossible to outrun our sexuality, to outrun all the weakness that comes with our human nature. The sins we see being committed around us are in fact, to varying degrees rooted in all members of the human race.
Secondly, a teaching about Ashes. The use of Ashes has biblical roots. It is a sign of repentance. They indicate that we recognize that we are sinners. They do not remove sin. This can only be done, for the Catholic through the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. We enter then into a period of preparation for Easter called ‘Lent’ which has ancient roots in Christianity. So what do we mean by Easter?
Brothers and sisters, our faith tells us that Jesus Christ achieved our redemption through his suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into glory. We refer to these events, this movement from suffering and death to resurrection ascension to God’s right and as the Paschal Mystery. As we say in the Eucharist, “by dying he destroyed our death, by rising he restored our life. This is the meaning of Easter.” This is our central conviction. On this central conviction our faith rises or it falls. The paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. (If there were no Easter, there would be no parish of Santa Rosa, no parang, no celebration of Christmas, there would not be a Pope Francis or even St Francis….everything we do and say as Catholic Christians rests on this foundation.)
Here is another way I convey to people what Lent is about:
Many years ago, before joining the priesthood, I knew a beautiful woman who was never, ever seen without makeup on. Out of curiosity I asked her one day “Why do people wear makeup?” She told me the purpose of makeup was to “accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.” Her words come back to me as once again we begin this Lenten journey. This is the time when we will strip ourselves of our makeup. We will “take off” the face we love to present to the world – in silent prayer, in the privacy of our own room we will strip away that carefully cultivated image we love to show to others – the good provider, efficient manager, caring priest, dynamic preacher, loving spouse, excellent teacher, hard-working manager. We will open our hearts, fully and trustingly to the Lord and ask Him to reach down into those places where only He may go and bring us the healing we need. We will quietly read the Word of God as it comes to us in the bible and we will sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him again. Finally we shall engage in acts of solidarity with others who suffer. This lent all of us shall make it our business to do at least ONE act of charity to another human being in need of it.
