The Thin Line Between Cleverness and Piety

Lenten observances are reflections on sacrificial compassion. We seek changed lives, or to change the lives of those around us, even if only slightly. The spiritual overshadows the merely practical efficiency of $14/day.

One can approach the $14/day discipline in so many different ways: Is it appropriate to cleverly squeeze the budget for every advantage, creating the most rich and tasteful diet possible within the limits available? Or should we shed desires because they’re unbecoming of the observance, even if they fit into the limits? Can shrewdness and reverence get along?

We limited meat at the beginning - it is expensive. Now we are finding opportunities to add meat back into the menu. Good drink is probably one of the more expensive parts of any food budget, but it can enhance the simplest of meals. It’s a guilty pleasure to discover it’s possible to share wine or brew in moderation on a frugal budget.

I’m reminded that Jesus and the disciples shared food, wine and good company, but had virtually no wealth. Meals and celebrations are part of the Gospels, the subject of miracles and profound messages: water into wine; feeding of thousands with one basket of food; a man that had been dead cooking fish over a fire on a lakeshore; having dinner with prostitutes and collectors of the Roman tax; feasting on the best head of cattle from the estate to celebrate the return of a reckless son; nets so heavy with fish they can’t be lifted into the boat; bread and wine shared with friends to symbolize a final confrontation.

The stories are less about food than about God and us. Just to participate in the discipline and have the discussion transforms us, makes us closer, meditating on the problems and inconsistencies, even if we can’t agree on the answers.