The Meaning of Lent to this Unchurched Christian

I caught up with this opinion title in the New York Times published yesterday, Feb 28, 2022. Margaret Renkl, the author of the piece, describes how as a young girl growing as a catholic, was exposed to the rituals of the Church, included but not limited to Ash Wednesday. She recalls how the priest, on Ash Wednesday, dips his fingers into a pot of ashes and murmurs “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Renkl was fond of this ritual.

But later in life once she realized that she would never become a priest because she was a woman, she rebelled against the church and left it all together for good. Moreover, the quarantine of Covid forced her and her husband far deeper away from the institutional church.

She is now 60 years old and has no intention of returning to church at least for now as he puts it. She, however, misses the community, the singing, the social justice ministries. She misses the ashes as well. As a member of “the unchurched Christian faithful,” as she calls herself, Renkl wonders what she would do now during the Lent season.

Should she adopt the secular meaning of ashes when people give up something to identity to the sacrifice of Christ, an idea that she considers trivial since many people have paid enough sacrifice already in the loss of loved one to covid. Should she give up cursing or loose pounds as her parents used to do? Renkl is not against those who practices these penances, but she does not find meaning in them.

She rather advocates an opening to the spirit of God. She recommends us to look around, to find something that brings solace in us. She encourages us to what William James calls “a variety of religious experiences.” The singing of birds could be that kind experience where one could hear God or feel his presence in a very personal way that no one else could comprehend.

I like Renkl’s approach. I am of the belief that Lent prepares us to search the presence of God in a way perhaps never before. It is far from traditions, rituals, or sacrifices. It is a rather a moment of finding God in our immediate environment. A moment to search for hope, a moment to believe, a moment to be better than yesterday. Lent is a season of faith.

In His Name,
Pastor Will