[LENTEN THOUGHTS 1]
The period of Lent is regarded by ordinary Catholics
As a time for prayer and penance.
It’s a time for mortification, for ‘giving up’ pleasures
Like sweets, or meat, or cinema, or even sex.
Lent is forty days of prayer and abstinence.
The real meaning of Lent is metanoia
The Greek word for renewal.
To become new.
Most Catholics view Lent as something to be enforced.
A stern law to be enforced within the family and in the community.
Some Christians are so scandalized, so shocked
If a priest or a nun is seen to be eating Meat on a Friday
Or having a glass of beer during Lent.
But Metanoia means to make things new.
Not to enforce the law of Moses.
But to bring forth the love of that Jesus preached.
Osho once said “Law is enforced love; Love is a spontaneous law.”
Moses gave commandments.
Jesus gave insight into these commandments.
One can follow the commandments, can ‘observe the Lenten practice’
On a formal, superficial level.
One can become a righteous person, a puritan, a moralist for 40 days
And deep down nothing changes.
The old darkness is still there.
The old unconsciousness is still there.
Nothing has really changed, I’m just wearing this beautiful mask.
Now there’s nothing wrong in wearing a beautiful mask – if you
Have an ugly face, wear a mask, it will at least save others from seeing you.
But the mask cannot change the ugly face.
You have to transform the face too.
Why be so hard on others, who perhaps do not choose to wear masks during Lent?
Moses gave a very crude discipline to society. Primitive.
He couldn’t have done better, there was no way.
Human consciousness in his time existed in a primitive way.
But Moses prepared the way, and Jesus was the fulfilment.
What Moses started, Jesus completes.
Moses laid the foundation. Jesus raised the whole temple.
Lent is not a law of discipline and punishment.
Lent is a time for love.
The period of Lent is regarded by ordinary Catholics
As a time for prayer and penance.
It’s a time for mortification, for ‘giving up’ pleasures
Like sweets, or meat, or cinema, or even sex.
Lent is forty days of prayer and abstinence.
The real meaning of Lent is metanoia
The Greek word for renewal.
To become new.
Most Catholics view Lent as something to be enforced.
A stern law to be enforced within the family and in the community.
Some Christians are so scandalized, so shocked
If a priest or a nun is seen to be eating Meat on a Friday
Or having a glass of beer during Lent.
But Metanoia means to make things new.
Not to enforce the law of Moses.
But to bring forth the love of that Jesus preached.
Osho once said “Law is enforced love; Love is a spontaneous law.”
Moses gave commandments.
Jesus gave insight into these commandments.
One can follow the commandments, can ‘observe the Lenten practice’
On a formal, superficial level.
One can become a righteous person, a puritan, a moralist for 40 days
And deep down nothing changes.
The old darkness is still there.
The old unconsciousness is still there.
Nothing has really changed, I’m just wearing this beautiful mask.
Now there’s nothing wrong in wearing a beautiful mask – if you
Have an ugly face, wear a mask, it will at least save others from seeing you.
But the mask cannot change the ugly face.
You have to transform the face too.
Why be so hard on others, who perhaps do not choose to wear masks during Lent?
Moses gave a very crude discipline to society. Primitive.
He couldn’t have done better, there was no way.
Human consciousness in his time existed in a primitive way.
But Moses prepared the way, and Jesus was the fulfilment.
What Moses started, Jesus completes.
Moses laid the foundation. Jesus raised the whole temple.
Lent is not a law of discipline and punishment.
Lent is a time for love.
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