This coming Wednesday, March 5, is Ash Wednesday for the Year of Our Lord 2025. The Lenten season begins on that day and extends through Good Friday: April 18 of this year. It’s supposed to be a season of penitence and reflection, during which Catholics strive to deepen our appreciation and gratitude for Jesus’s sacrifice of His mortal body in expiation for the sins of men. And to be fair, a lot of us do use it that way. But not all of us.
A lot of attention focuses on the day before Ash Wednesday: Mardi Gras, “celebrations” of which occur in many cities in the Western Hemisphere. That day is one of revelry, even debauchery. The originating idea seems to have been “You’re about to do a whole lot of going-without, so get your self-indulgences and depravities in now!” At one time I thought little of this. Today it seems emblematic of much that’s gone wrong with “post-Christian” society.
Jesus knew what lay ahead for Him:
And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.
[Matthew 20:17-19]
He even discussed it with certain other prominent persons:
And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
[Luke 9:28-31]
So it’s on record that the Apostles knew what was coming for their leader, just as He did.
It feels wrong to me to “lead off” Lent with a gluttonous spate of bodily indulgence. As the season approaches, I’m minded to “gear down” before it starts, in preparation for the season itself. If Lent is intended to prepare us for the Passion, I “prepare to prepare,” as it were. It’s the opposite mindset from the sort that gives us Mardi Gras.
Just an early-morning thought from one who takes his faith seriously. Not many do, these days.
1 comments
The pre-Lenten gluttony is a holdover from pagan days. It has its analogue in ramadan, ostensibly a time of islamic prayer and fasting, but in reality, just another oportunity to indulge in prandial excess. Moslems spend half a day “fasting” then top it off with a huge meal.