Lent, with its focus on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, can be very meaningful for us as Catholics. It is a time to step back and assess where we are struggling in how we live out our Christian discipleship. Hopefully, after taking time to determine where we are, we will be able to do something that leads to a conversion of heart, a reconciliation of relationship, or whatever we need to do to deepen our relationship with God and others. Those things constitute the big stuff. It’s funny, though. For many of us, receiving ashes or palms ranks higher on our Lenten to-do list than apologizing to Uncle Bill for embarrassing him in front of family (for example). Being a passive receptor is much easier than actually doing something, especially the difficult things. Loving God and loving thy neighbor are simple, but they aren’t easy!
Today, I want to provide you with a slightly different list of the “big” stuff regarding living as a Catholic. It is also a good time of year to see where we stand in their regard. These “big” things are called the Precepts of the Church.
The Precepts are as follows:
- Attendance at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation: This one is pretty straightforward. Taking time to praise and thank God for our blessings through worship is the starting place for honoring the First Commandment and prioritizing God in our lives.
- Confession of serious sin at least once a year: We can think our sins aren’t “serious,” but biting words or not making attendance at a child’s school event a priority can break someone’s spirit, let alone missing Mass for a wishy-washy reason. Making an effort to attend the Sacrament of Reconciliation can make a big difference in our spiritual lives and help us restore our relationships.
- Reception of Holy Communion at least once a year during the Easter season: Here is another one that doesn’t really need an explanation other than that you should be in communion with the Church to receive communion. Did you see the same word twice in that sentence? That means if you haven’t been absolved from your sins in Reconciliation, especially the serious ones, you would do well to participate in the sacrament to remove what’s blocking you from being in a state of communion with God and the Church.
- Observance of the days of fasting and abstinence: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday require both fasting practices, which means eating one meal and then two smaller meals that wouldn’t add up to a total of another full meal and abstaining from eating meat. Another way to express the idea of fasting is that the amount of food we eat on days of fasting should add up to less than two full meals for the entire day. The other Fridays of Lent only require abstinence from meat.
- Providing for the needs of the Church: Here is another easy one. I know, however, that some folks grumble that it is pretty nervy that the Church “mandates” that people donate to the Church. Here’s my take. Yes, that might feel like the gist of it, but “the Church” is made up of the People of God. Christ is our Head, and we all make up the Body of Christ. When we are in union with that Body, it makes sense that we would want to make sure that those who are grieving have the doors of the church open to provide the opportunity to have a funeral service for their loved one. We would want our parish’s food pantry to be open to those in need. I could go on. We are the Church, and by our gifts of time, talent, and treasure, we keep the Body functioning, let alone flourishing.
