Christine Bryant
In the Waikato, we are aware of the changing seasons, despite our temperate climate.
After two weeks recently of glorious summer weather, everything has ripened or is ripening: peaches, plums, grapes, and tomatoes.
St John’s Anglican Church, Te Awamutu
If you have these in your garden, you will be busy preserving and freezing. But all too soon, it will be autumn with cooler days, less sunlight, falling leaves – the changes which herald winter.
The church also has its seasons. This week it will be Shrove Tuesday or Mardi gras, followed by Ash Wednesday. ‘To shrive’, (shrove shriven) means to confess one’s sins to obtain forgiveness.
As well as confession, it was time to use up ‘fat’, hence Pancake Tuesday, before the Lenten period of fasting.
In the northern hemisphere, as winter came to an end, there was little fat left to use up. People had to rely on the food they had preserved, for example beans or potatoes or flour-based foods such as pasta – what we know today as “comfort food”.
Ash Wednesday is like Yom Kippur in Judaism, a day of repentance. It is the first day of Lent which represent the 40 days Jesus prayed and fasted as he prepared for his years of ministry.
It is similar to the Muslim month of fasting – Ramadan.
For many years, the first weekend of Lent was often marked in schools and churches by the 40-Hour Famine, a World Vision initiative to inspire young people to raise money for countries experiencing famine. It was very successful and enabled teenagers in affluent countries like Aotearoa to have a small idea of what it was like to be hungry all the time.
The season of Lent should still resonate with us.
It could lead us to reflect on our lifestyle and the changes we might make to share what we have with those who are struggling in our community.
The poor in New Zealand are not poor by Third World standards. Nevertheless, around 20 per cent of families live in deprived circumstances.
They do not have enough money to participate in experiences most of us take for granted.
The beginning of the school year is an especially trying time as families with limited means juggle the need to pay high rents and food bills with the need to buy school uniforms and stationery and pay for extras, such as school camps.
Even if we do not consider ourselves wealthy, some of us at least could afford to do without something to ease the burden on even one struggling family. In Luke 9: 12-17, we hear about how a small amount of food, when blessed and shared, will feed many. The lesson is that sharing what you have is not just a blessing to the person receiving it, but also to the giver.
In Te Awamutu the churches operate a Food Bank which always needs donations to help families in our community. A gift for the Food Bank can be left at any of the churches.
Doing without a treat and sharing our surplus are simple ways in which we can put the spirit of Lent into practice.
