Peter Espeut | From holy days to holidays

Wednesday, February 18 – Ash Wednesday – was a public holiday in Protestant Jamaica, but not in Catholic Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). Ash Wednesday is the opening act in the penitential season of Lent, during which Catholics (and others) are required (on certain days) to fast (deny ourselves food) and abstain from meat.

Because of the latter, in certain countries/cities, an orgy of meat eating takes place in the days preceding Ash Wednesday, after which they bid ‘farewell to meat’ (carne-vale). Trinidad calls it ‘Carnival’; Brazil calls it ‘Carnaval’; New Orleans calls the day before Ash Wednesday ‘Mardi Gras’ (Fat Tuesday in French).

In T&T they chip, dance and party for days before Lent begins, and on the stroke of midnight on Carnival Tuesday, everything stops! For tradition – secular and religious – demands that everyone turns out bright and early on Ash Wednesday morning – which is not a public holiday – to do a full day’s work; and then fill the churches in the evening to get their ashes..

When I was an undergraduate, the Trinis at UWI – in fits of nostalgia – would put on UWI Carnival in the days before Ash Wednesday; but they became utterly frustrated when Jamaicans would not turn off the music at midnight. They went home to their halls of residence, leaving the Jamaicans still partying. They thought of us as pagans and Philistines! We copied the ‘play mas’’ part, and the calypso and soca part, but not the ‘carne vale’ part.

That is what happens when you try to copy someone else’s culture. You just don’t get it right! Maybe you even do violence to it! [We say we have copied the Westminster style of government, but we have not copied the ethics and values which underpin it. Resignations – even in the face of malfeasance – are rare, but that is another story].

To make it worse, some real Philistines have tried to establish what they call ‘Jamaica Carnival’, but completely dissociated from its religious significance. In fact, perversely, they hold it during Lent itself, when there is supposed to be fasting and abstentions from that sort of thing! Scandalous!

ORGY OF COMMERCIALISM

But then again, look what we have done with Christmas! The great mystery of the Incarnation is forgotten in the midst of an orgy of commercialism and materialism.

And Easter has become a long weekend to spend on the beach, rather than to liturgically relive the mysteries of redemption and salvation!

Holy days have become holidays, and Jamaica has become a post-Christian society.

On Ash Wednesday we use ashes to trace a cross on our foreheads with the words: ‘Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return’. Along with fasting and penance, ashes have long been associated with mourning and lamenting and repentance and penitence (Job sat in an ash-heap to consider his lamentable position). The reluctant prophet Jonah was sent by God to warn the pagan people of Nineveh that if they did not repent of their wicked ways, their city would be overcome.

‘‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust” (Jonah 3:4-6).

Jesus says:

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Jesus in Matthew 11:21).

Jesus declares that the pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon will be quicker to repent than the Jewish towns of Chorazin an” Bethsaida! Even pagan Nineveh listened to the prophet sent by Yahweh. But will the Christians listen and repent?!

After his Baptism, Jesus spent forty days in the desert fasting and praying. He was tempted with the same temptations that entice modern-day humans: pleasure, possessions and power. Both persons and nations give in to temptations: sex crimes, poor eating habits, drunkenness, drug abuse, greed, covetousness, larceny, pollution, deforestation, fraud, ballot-stuffing, vote-buying, political corruption, favouritism, victimization are all the result of selfish personal and political choices against balance and the common good. Failure to admit these failings will lead to personal and national tragedy. A change of personal and nation direction is required.

REPURPOSING AND RENEWAL

And that is what Ash Wednesday and Lent are all about: an annual catharsis, repurposing and renewal.

On both the personal and national level, firm self-discipline is required. For Christians these are summarised by fasting, almsgiving and prayer (see Matthew 6:1-8).

The passions of the body can sometimes overcome common sense. Some of us cannot control our bodily urges. Fasting is a deliberate denial of food and drink to the body in the face of the persistent urges of hunger and thirst. Faithfulness in marriage does the same thing. The ability to deny satisfaction of these strong passions is what self-discipline is all about.

Christianity is an action religion, calling for intense fasting during the season of Lent, usually on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Many of us have an inordinate attachment to material things. Today it may well be the smartphone, the Clarks and the Gucci. Whatever, they represent the love of money. The only way to demonstrate that we love people more than money is to give away some of our possessions – until it hurts. This is called almsgiving.

Sometimes we think we are in control, and we don’t need God; we are drunk with the power we think we have. Genuine prayer – not a wanty-wanty beggy-beggy litany of self-interested requests – puts us in our place as being totally dependent upon God.

Each of us needs Lent. And so does Jamaica.

A holy and fruitful Lent to all of you!

Peter Espeut is a development scientist and Roman Catholic deacon. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com