For as long as I can remember people have asked at this time of year 'what are you giving up for Lent?' The responses varied - sweets, biscuits, sugar, cigarettes or drink. But I often wonder how deep our conviction is about Lent and how easy it is to be swamped by the pressures of our times and to do nothing for the season - to give up on Lent.
I write as a struggling 'chocoholic' and my most recent fall into the allure of chocolate was sparked off by the film Chocolat. I was using it to illustrate the meaning of Lent based on an article by Canadian priest, Keith Kennific, entitled: ''Chocolat'' in Lent: A Discussion (Worship 2001, Spring). He extracts three important Lenten themes from the film: Community, Fasting and Conversion.
Community
The film starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench and Johnny Depp tells the story of a mother and her daughter who come to a French village in Lent 1959 to set up a chocolaterie (a chocolate shop). She is not welcomed by the local community especially the repressed Mayor, Compte de Reynaud, who exercises an unhealthy control over the people. He has assumed the role of keeper of the town morals, and edits the homily scripts of the young priest, played by our own Hugh O'Connor.
People's lives and attitudes change with the arrival of the chocolaterie. The film is a study in conversion and how people can change when they are challenged to do so or allowed the freedom to be different. It demonstrates how a community can inhibit or enhance change. Eventually the hardened Compte melts like one of the delicious chocolates, the young curate begins to speak for himself and Easter Sunday is truly a day of celebration.
Fasting
In the film the Compte is assiduous in his fasting, but sadly his sense of charity is not in keeping with his faithfulness to the letter of the law of the Church. We have lost the notion of fasting to a great extent since the obligatory element was removed in the Sixties by the Church. I write as one who does not see the past as the 'good old days', but would welcome the general support that existed for fasting at one time. At Dublin's Pro-Cathedral some years ago meat-free recipes for Lent were made available to make it easier to connect with past traditions around Lent. These were very well received and point to a hunger for creative responses to traditional customs.
Conversion
This brings me to the third element of Lent highlighted in the film - Conversion. The central characters of the film made significant changes in their lives as they experienced conversion in their own way.
Lent is about making changes that extend beyond the season. It teaches us what we can do without and also what we can do to help others by our charity and by changing our lifestyle. Jesus never separated fasting from charitable activity and prayer. Once we get beyond the initial cravings in the first few days of any project we begin to see the benefits. The forty days of Lent offer a timeframe for change. Christians have embraced this opportunity since at least the Fourth Century AD. So let us not give up on Lent, but use the wisdom of centuries to honestly look at ourselves and be open to change what is not wholesome about our lives.
Fr Pat O'Donoghue is the Director of the Dublin Diocese Liturgy Resource Centre.
