“Is that what you call fasting?”

It was Isaiah who of the rough-cut prophets of Israel, a man of grit and vision. He could have been commenting on paragraphs 109 and 110 of Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

Now that the season is more than half completed, we can survey the new-style Lent. Gone are the complicated rules, the overwhelming eggs, the measuring of meals. The only unhappy people seem to be those who passionately love regulations and are lost Catholics whenever they find they can gain even more merits when they are free.

That was all I could think of last week when a lady who hates fish moaned about the passing of the old Lenten fast: “Lady, if you ate fish instead of meat because of the rules, why don’t you try it still without the rules?” Her reply was a snort—“New breeder!”

New Possibilities

Before the Council, some bishops and priests began introducing healthy forms of penance instead of the tight, old Lenten rules or the ‘three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys’ in confession. One cardinal in the United States urged his people to join in civic projects—I thought of it but decided some of the churchgoers might think I mean the John Birch Society.

“During lent,” said the council, “penance should not only be internal and individual, but external and social.” It was pointed out that there were all kinds of new opportunities rising out of our present time, place and circumstances.

Lately, I’ve observed or heard or read of the following—

A man named Elmer had this advice for the ideal area for penance, the American family: “If every husband would focus as much on his own failings as he does on getting a clear picture on his TV…and if every wife would cook for her husband as carefully as she does for her club…why Reno would be just another crossroads in Nevada!”

Friends can be good for penitential practices too. But not if you really try to be a man for all seasons. Seeing the St. Thomas More film recently, I was reminded of what he said to his friends just before he was beheaded: “We will pray for thee, and do thou pray for us. So that we may merrily meet in heaven.”

“Don’t fuss about your priest, pick on your bishop instead. There are fewer of us, and we make larger targets when you score.

Keep informed! Did you know that at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Free Cancer Home, 300 patients are called guests? Of these only 19 were Catholic. When you help out on sewing etc., it’s surprising that you gain far more than the patients—that is, the guests.

The war on poverty, the movement for civil rights, the demand for teachers and nurses and the urgency of peace in Vietnam all seem to converge. The point at which they meet is need. As Isaiah said:

“Is not this the sort of fact

that pleases me,

--it is the Lord Jahweh

who speaks—

to break unjust fetters…

to let the oppressed go free,

to share your bread with the hungry,

and shelter the homeless poor

If you do away with the yoke,

The clenched fist,

The wicked word…

Your light will rise in the darkness,

And your shadows become like noon.”

The ideas listed might be helpful, but it is our well-developed conscience that can really do an accurate inventory. Are you better off than you were on Ash Wednesday? If not, why not? Will Easter be the rebirth of the new man in you? If you want it to be, what are you doing about it?

Have a good Lent!

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta