Peter EspeutPREVIOUS GENERATIONS felt that Ash Wednesday was so holy a day that it became a public holiday in Jamaica. As Jamaica becomes more "modern", we become more secular, losing the meaning of important religious traditions like Ash Wednesday. Today there will be agricultural shows, bashments, festivals, dances and trips to the beach. Ash Wednesday has become just another public holiday. Not even the Church who would have lobbied for Ash Wednesday to be a public holiday in the first place, is giving the day and the season which it launches, the meaning it deserves. I think it is time to cancel Ash Wednesday as a public holiday and make it a day of work.
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, the penitential season which leads up to Easter, the holiest season of the church year. The forty days of Lent are traditionally a time of penance when we fast and abstain from meat and pray and give alms, when we examine ourselves, acknowledge our personal sinfulness, and consciously make an effort to do better. And we begin this period of cleansing with a day when we receive ashes on our foreheads as a sign of penance, and to remind ourselves of our origins, and of the final destination of our bodies which we so seek to pamper and pleasure: "Remember man that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return".
In many parts of the world, a period of Carnival (or Mardi Gras) festivities precedes the austerity of Ash Wednesday and Lent. Carnival ("carne vale": literally "farewell to meat") revelry is supposed to end at midnight when Ash Wednesday and penitence begins. In Trinidad it is striking how abruptly the music and dancing stop; and after weeks of merry-making, everyone turns out to work at 8 o'clock the following morning, for Ash Wednesday is not a public holiday in Trinidad, the land of Carnival! And then the churches are packed in the evening and the penitence begins.
As we in Jamaica try to copy Trinidad's Carnival, we don't even try to copy the same respect they have for Ash Wednesday and for Lent. Jamaican Shrove Tuesday fetes go to daylight Ash Wednesday morning, and Jamaica Carnival begins even before Lent ends. What could be more jarring, more out of place than a fete on such a day, in such a season of penance? It is a sign of just how irreligious we have become.
When I was a boy, to mark this penitential season we were required to abstain from meat on Fridays (awaiting Good Friday) in Lent, and to fast (do without food, not just eat less). We were required to "give up something for Lent" as a form of self-sacrifice. Whether ice cream or sweets, as children we were encouraged to deny ourselves, to show that our minds control our bodies; and maybe after Lent we might decide to give them up permanently and live more frugally, which is an important part of Christianity.
The value of these simple practices is not small. The media lead us to believe that self-denial is foolishness; that on the contrary, life is about giving in to whatever pleases us (drugs, sex, buying things); that sacrifice for others ("other-ishness") is pious weakness; that we must live for ourselves (self-ishness); that if we don't grasp and grab and take and clutch, then someone else will, and we will look like fools. The values taught in the observance of Lent clash with the values of modern society; Christianity is truly counter-culture! Practising self-denial during Lent teaches much that is important.
Today in the Roman Catholic Church these practices are no longer obligations but are still strongly recommended. The feeling is that one benefits more from the experience when it is done voluntarily. The result has been that the practices have almost stopped! In today's church, traditional self-denial has been extended to activism; individuals and groups are encouraged to get involved in charitable or human development projects to make even a slight difference to a small group of people. The hope is that this sort of activity may also persist throughout the year, indeed that we would spend our whole lives working for justice and development. "What I want is mercy, not sacrifice," says the Lord (Hosea 6:6; Mt. 9:13). Rather than rend (tear) our garments as a sign of sorrow for our sins, or wear sackcloth and ashes over our whole bodies, we are called upon to "Rend our hearts" (Joel 2:13).
As good as these practices may be to cleanse us as individuals, there is much we as the people of Jamaica need to cleanse from our body politic. We are guilty of condoning either actively or by our silence political violence and thuggery, consistent electoral fraud, and corruption in the administration of public affairs (such as in the award of contracts and the sale of public lands). Corruption at the highest levels of national life begins with corruption at the personal level: politicians, contractors, businessmen and citizens. Lent should be a time when we examine ourselves to see how we have participated in these and other irregularities, and when we resolve to do our part to put an end to them. This Lent will be filled with electioneering, the making of empty promises and the buying of votes. What a missed opportunity!
Every year Ash Wednesday comes and goes, and Lent comes and goes, and yet corruption remains, and even deepens. Rather than confess our sins, we have sought to cover them up. Our penitence, I fear, has not been thorough or honest enough. I find the failure of Mother Church to educate her members in her traditions quite sad, at a time when her children appear directionless and need her the most. Is the morale of the Church so low that she will allow politicians to take over the job of inculcating morals, values and attitudes in the country?
Brothers and Sisters, during this Lenten season let us seek those things that are really important. Let us truly reflect on our own personal lives and conduct; and let us also reflect on the structure of the society in which we live, which favours some and constrains others. There are things we can do. How shall we change our own conduct? And how shall we remove the injustice woven into the fabric of Jamaican society and polity?
Peter Espeut is a Roman Catholic Deacon, and an environmentalist.
