Giving Something Up
For most older Catholics, the first thought that Lent brings to mind is giving something up. In my childhood, the standard was to give up sweets, a discipline that found suitable reward in the huge amount of eggs I received at Easter. Some of my friends even added to the Easter surplus by saving sweets all through Lent, stockpiling what they would have eaten had they not promised to give them up.
A few years ago I urged students to move beyond giving up sweets to giving up some habit of sin that marked their lives. About halfway through Lent I asked the students how they were doing with their Lenten promise.
Lent: Giving Something UpOne of the girls had promised to give up fighting with her brothers and sisters during Lent. When I asked her how it was going, the girl replied, "I'm doing pretty good, but I can't wait until Easter!"
That response indicates that this girl had only partly understood the purpose of Lenten "giving up." Lent is about conversion, turning our lives more completely over to Christ and his way of life. That always involves giving up sin in some form. The goal is not just to abstain from sin for the duration of Lent but to root sin out of our lives forever. Conversion means leaving behind an old way of living and acting in order to embrace new life in Christ.