MARCH 25, 2007

I had someone point out to me last weekend that it was ironic that we were only halfway through Lent and yet with the concurrence of St. Patrick’s Day and St. Joseph’s Day there was much partying and celebrating going on, which this person felt somehow “cheapened” the penances and mortifications of Lent.

At first I tried to point out to him that the Church knew that in most years those two feasts would fall in the Lenten season and that perhaps it was deliberate that we were given a bit of a break lest we lose heart. I even went on to point out that it was also Laetare Sunday, the Sunday of rejoicing, which was meant to fulfill the same function. He was not impressed.

I then tried to explain that penances, mortifications and such activities are for the sake of each individual, and that the Church presumed that people would somehow make up for any lapses if they were sincere in their call to the journey of repentance. And I went on to postulate that positive activities—like making the Stations or extra Bible reading or the Tuesday Mass or personal charities were more appropriate ways of marking Lent. And the celebrations of last week in no way prejudiced continuing those endeavors. He wouldn’t buy that either.

Finally, I argued that the Church did not have a monopoly on irony, that our culture was filled with far more irony that he seemed to take for granted without much objection. To wit:Only in America......can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance. Only in America......are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink. Only in America......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front. Only in America......do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke. Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters. Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage. Only in America......do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place. Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight. Only in America.....do we have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

We still have some Lenten time left without irony to complete our road to repentance. Have a good one till Easter comes.