Fish & Chips: Christ without the Cross

In our modern-day world, most people only want the good stuff. When it comes to religion, most people in my area have abandoned their Christian faith and the only remnant that remains is their adherence to the "good stuff", by which I mean pleasurable aspects of religious celebrations. They probably are not even aware of where these traditions and celebrations come from.

I can give a few examples. One is the absolute madness with which people seek out Fish and Chips on Good Friday. It has become a major tradition. At popular fish and chips restaurants, there are hundreds of people lined up waiting perhaps a couple of hours to get their "feed" of fish and chips. It has simply become a tradition that is completely detached from its original meaning.

Catholics are asked to fast and abstain from flesh meat on Fridays of the year and in particular Good Friday. In fact, Good Friday is one of only 2 fast days mandated by the Catholic Church, at least in Canada. Because fish is not considered a flesh-meat, it can be consumed. But to ignore all of Lent and then on Good Friday have a huge feast of Fish and Chips completely misses the point! It is meant to be a penitential day, a day of reflection, a day where we remember the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the agony he endured to bring about our salvation. It is not a time for festivities and joyous gatherings.

In our local area, there was a lot of news about how people would get their fish and chips in the midst of a pandemic. Would places be open? How would people line up?

Perhaps people would have been better to stay home and practice some form of penance or fasting.

I'm not saying this from a place of pride, I'm simply showing how people have abandoned all the penance and have only embraced the pleasure. They want the resurrection without the crucifixion. They want the joy without the sorrow. They want Christ but not the Cross.

I, too often, have fallen into this myself. I seek out the easy way to do things, not the right way. But I have started to realize that the easy way doesn't lead to happiness. We are happy when we seek to do the will of God. I am not saying I am there yet, but I do recognize that fact.

Another example of this happening is things like Mardi Gras and even Carnival in some places. These events preceded Lent. Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday and was a time when people used up all their animal products including fat, because these items are prohibited during Lent. Nowadays though, while many people celebrate Mardi Gras, few do much for Lent. Nothing much will happen until their perverse Good Friday and then Easter. Of course, Easter is highly publicized and celebrated, although again for the wrong reasons. Chocolate, candy, parties, etc. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I would encourage people to celebrate Easter in a cheerful and lively way. But it only really makes sense after going through Lent. Again, otherwise it's Christ without the Cross.

This year I undertook a program called Exodus 90, which is a 90-day instead of 40-day program that precedes Lent. I certainly wasn't perfect in my adherence to all the rules of the 90-day practice, and at the tail-end with the pandemic ongoing and my own issues, I kind of fell off the wagon to some degree. Things went better in the last few days during the Triduum.

If done correctly and ideally, Exodus-90 called for the foregoing of many pleasures in life. The rules included only being allowed cold showers, no alcohol, no snacking, no candy, sugar, or desserts, no TV, no sports, etc. It also included substantive prayer time each day, rising early each Saturday morning for a group meeting, and checking in with our "anchor" to monitor our progress and share our struggles. Plus, we are to do some form of intense exercise 3 times per week.

It was very challenging, and as mentioned, I did slip a few times. However, it was an overall good program. If done correctly, it brings great joy to Easter, but it also detaches us from our vices and sins and just general laziness. I have made amends to get up around 6:00 every morning. So far it hasn't been perfect, but it is MUCH better than before. I am also endeavoring to pray every morning.

Doing the program, although imperfectly, has really given me some valuable insight and I will use that as a springboard going forward.

Exodus-90 stands in great contrast to the way of life promoted in our modern-day secular world. One in which excess is barely enough. I think people would find great joy in experiencing both penance and joy, they go hand-in-hand.

I hope you're having a great Easter. God shows us that he loves us because although Lent is 40 days, Easter is 50 days until Pentecost. No matter what struggles we are going through right now, God is telling us that much more joy awaits us now (if we come close to Him) as well as in Heaven.

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Happy Easter to All My Readers!

Prayer During the Corongavirus (Covid19) Pandemic

As usual, when something like a pandemic strikes, many non-believers will scornfully bash anyone who advocates prayer. They are so petty that even if a politician offers thoughts and prayers, they become upset and feel the need to voice their displeasure with this simple gesture.

I would like to talk a little about the purpose and effectiveness of prayer, and whether or not we should prayer in a time like this, i.e. during the Coronavirus (Covid19) pandemic.

In our modern world, we often have a sort of default materialistic attitude, even among believers. We view things through the lens of our temporal world. For example, when we think of prayer, we may think of gaining material possessions, or doing well on a test, or ending a pandemic. We see those types of things as our highest goals. I think part of this is due to the influence of our secular world on our thinking. Saints advise us that sin originates from three places: the world, the flesh, and the Devil. We are to be in the world but not of the world. Some go as far as to say we are to hate the world. This does not mean hating our neighbor or God, but rather putting the things of the world in its proper place which is well below God's proper place.

So the first thing to understand when it comes to prayer is the purpose of prayer, and more broadly our purpose in life. As a Christian people, we are not secular materialists. Rather, we are spiritual beings and our greatest good comes from having closer communion with God. It is part of our nature. God created us and as St. Augustine tells us, our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

Therefore, we must first get over the idea that the purpose of prayer is to achieve material or temporal success. I heard an excellent homily on the Sensus Fidelium Youtube channel where he discusses how to obtain anything through prayer. Much of what I will be saying in this blog post is inspired from this homily. You can find the video here.

In the talk, he says there are 3 conditions necessary for a prayer to be answered:

1. Humility
2. Confidence
3. Perseverance

Humility, which is the opposite of pride, is probably the most important, and possibly rarest, virtue. It seems, for example, that those who bash prayer and its effectiveness are full of pride. Even if God were to grant their prayer, they would either not attribute it to God or they would just see him as a sort of cosmic slot machine. Put your coin in and you get a big payout. Repeat.

That's also how they deride believers. They mock God, just like some of the people at the foot of the cross. "Save yourself if you're really the son of God!" "Where's God now!" They demand that God obey their demands, and when he doesn't they act indignant, as if they were owed something from the Creator of the Universe. Obviously with such an attitude of entitlement and lack of humility, prayer will rarely be answered.

The second condition for effective prayer is confidence. We must believe that God can and will provide what we need in life, that he loves us and is there for us. St. Terese of Lisieux wanted always to be like a child in the eyes of God. She said as a child we believe our father can do anything. He will always be there for us and will never let us down. She said that's how we must be with God now as adults. Jesus Christ himself told us that unless we are like little children, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

The confidence of a child is what we must have in order for our prayers to be answered. We must trust that God loves us and does everything for our good. Sometimes a situation may seem hopeless, but with the trust of a child, we never lose hope. God will bring good from any evil if we allow him and fervently prayer for him to do so.

The third condition for prayer to be answered is perseverance. This is closely related to confidence. The example given in the video I linked is that found in a parable given by Jesus in which a man continually asks for bread from another man who is at first reluctant to provide it since he is already in bed and the door is locked. But the man who wants bread persists, and simply out of annoyance, the man in the house provides him bread. Jesus asks how much more will our Heavenly Father provide for our needs since he loves us more than we love ourselves?

Back to prayer and this pandemic. If we have all three of these characteristics when praying, we will find great advancement in the spiritual life. We will be given everything we could possibly ever need and become holier and closer to God. This is what we truly need. But God operates in other ways as well. He does provide miracles as has been shown countless times throughout history. He can help us with our material as well as spiritual needs. But we cannot approach him with an attitude of testing him or of pride. This attitude will only move us further from God, not closer.

I once heard a very interesting concept which was that if we were all holy saints on Earth, none of the earthly, material issues would be of any concern to us. We would offer up our sufferings to join more fully in the suffering of Christ who redeemed the world. We would not fear death and we would live joyfully. This is what God wants for us. We cannot reject the spiritual completely and just make materialistic demands on God. He would not provide that for us as it will only push us further away from him.

If you have anything to add, please do so in the comment section below. I really love hearing from you!

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