What are you doing for Lent?

(Note: this was my "Pastor's Reflection" column in the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, February 7, 2010.)

Lent is just a week and a half away.

The Gospel reading for the Mass of Ash Wednesday gives us a clear direction for our Lenten practice. Jesus speaks about almsgiving, prayer, and fasting (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18), and how we should do all three of those practices without calling attention to ourselves.

Almsgiving means that we should pay special attention to the needs of others. I think Jesus is asking us to put the needs of others, especially the less fortunate, ahead of our own needs at this time. And to use this time of Lent to practice how we might do that all the time.

This might mean paying particular attention to our favorite charity, and making our contributions more intentional, and even more sacrificial. Or perhaps we should look around for needs of others that aren't being met, and find ways of doing something about that.

Almsgiving is the way we can put into practice our belief in the Mystical Body of Christ, that you and I are together members of the Body of Christ, fulfilling our responsibility to care for one another as we would care for Christ himself.

Let is also a special time for prayer. Not so much that we say extra prayers at this time or engage in extra religious practices, and then abandon them after Easter. No. This is a time to acquire new habits of praying in ways that can continue throughout the rest of the year.

Fasting isn't simply giving up something. Fasting rather is a way of creating an emptiness, an opening in our lives where God can come in and fill us with himself. Fasting can also sharpen our awareness of our limitations and our oneness with those who are deprived without choosing it. Fasting should make us feel empty . . . and free.

Faithful Muslims have a lot to teach us about all three of these practices that Jesus and his Church ask us to do during Lent. Three of the five practices (called the"five pillars") of a faithful Muslim's life correspond to these three Gospel commands.

Muslims pray, devotedly and outwardly with particular gestures and movements as well as words, five times a day. The discipline of marking the major points of the day with prayer is also an ancient Christian monastic tradition, which may have influenced Islam in adopting this intentional commitment to regular prayer. If we don't pray, we become forgetful of God, taking him for granted and becoming negligent in our responsibility to acknowledge him as the Lord of our lives. Can you honestly say that Jesus is Lord and at the same time neglect to pay attention to him in prayer regularly through the day?

Perhaps we Christians can learn from Muslims the importance of frequently turning to God during our day, to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior.

Faithful Muslims fulfill the obligation each year to give 2.5% of their total wealth -- not just of their income, but of their "net worth" over and above a certain amount needed for basic sustenance of their own life. This must be given to the poor and for works that benefit the poor.

Can we as Christians, who are commanded to do to the "least" of our brothers and sisters as we would do to Christ, take on a Lenten practice of opening our eyes and paying greater attention to those in need on our very doorstep?

Perhaps the most well-known practice of faithful Muslims is to fast during the month of Ramadan. This is a rigorous fast, more so than our Catholic rules. No food or even water from dawn to sundown, and the fast is broken after sunset each day with a simple meals. Fasting for Muslims is a way of giving thanks to God the giver of all good by acknowledging our dependence on him. (Note that Muslims strictly follow a lunar calendar of 28 days, so Ramadan starts about ten or twelve days earlier each year. This year Ramadan is from August 11 to September 9. It is noteworthy that Islam forbids fasting for those whose health would be damaged or find it a serious hardship.)

Our own Catholic rules of fasting during Lent are simple and minimal: only one full meal on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent. Those are the rules, the minimum. Anyone who is serious about their relationship with God is going should work at finding more ways of creating emptiness so that God can fill it.

I realize of course that not all Muslims follow these practices faithfully, and there are those who seriously distort the meaning of Islam, which is a word meaning both submission to God and peace. But just as not all Christians faithfully imitate Christ and some do violence under the guise of Christianity, we cannot judge the true practice of the best by the distortions of the worst. We must learn from one another.

Please take advantage of these last days before Lent to plan what you are going to do in order to make this truly a season of grace.