I will say this: Lent fits the Roman Catholic system excellently, both historically and in practice. I was never under the impression that Ash Wednesday was a Holy Day of Obligation (HDO). I suppose my Roman Catholic education, now over 50 years old in part, was too rigorous for me to be wrong about that one. (I’m certain far more RC’s are confused about the doctrine of “The Immaculate Conception” than they are about Ash Wednesday.)

For those of you unfamiliar with RC HDO’s, they are days which the Pope rules that if RC’s do not attend the portion of the RC mass – beginning with the “Offeratory,” where they claim priest begins to sacrifice Jesus again “in an unbloody way” in the form of an unleavened wheat wafer, and culminating with the priest eating the wafer he has so “consecrated” – you will be committing a “mortal sin,” which, if left unforgiven by a RC priest, or in the unusual case of a “perfect act of contrition,” will send you directly to the lake of fire when you die.

That’s what an HDO is. There are a few of them besides every single Sunday throughout the year. They vary from nation to nation, and even from state to state. There used to be a whole lot of them: dozens. Now they are under 10 in most countries. One is All Saints Day, November 1st. There are three “feasts of Mary” that are HDO’s including, for instance, the two false doctrines of her alleged sinless birth and her alleged bodily ascension (“Assumption”) into heaven. I remember that years ago, my brother agreed to read through the book of Acts with me in order to show me where the doctrine of the “assumption” could be found. He quit reading with me after 15 or sixteen chapters. I’m sure he read ahead, and realized we weren’t going to find it!

Now I find it interesting that the RC who wrote this comment to which I am replying found it important to educate himself on Roman Catholic doctrine, and yet remains entirely ignorant of the Scriptures of God! THIS is really essential RC’ism! The Lord Jesus pointed out to the religious leaders of His days on earth that they made the Word of God of no effect due to their traditions. Those Jewish leaders had tied up their entire generation in such a way that overwhelmingly the Lord Jesus was rejected by that nation when He came to them. Today, perhaps not as overwhelmingly, but still in mass numbers, RC’s reject the truth of Scripture, and therefore the Lord Jesus Himself, and instead hold to the traditions that men have authored and delivered to them. Lent is perhaps the epitome of this form of practice, and it is telling today that the so-called “Protestant” world (made of people who have quit protesting anything!) marked as it is with the post-modern rise of various forms of Reformed doctrine, has quietly and nearly uniformly adopted the Babylonian “Lent.”

Now, there are those who would consider that I am singularly anti-RC’ism. This is not precisely true. I am against all forms of the rebellion that commenced at at ancient Babylon that resulted in the discipline of God in confusing human language. This rebellion was, at its base, a political one, with religion being used as the “opiate of the masses.” RC’ism, in the Western World, is still the leading Babylonian protege. The rise of Islam, which some have claimed is a RC creation, is another example object inheriting features of the Babylonian class. In both of these religious systems, sacrificial work for forgiveness, for spiritual growth, or for some form of spiritual attainment is commended. “It HELPS me get closer to Christ.” Oh, really? One wonders who his “Christ” is?

The Lord Jesus Christ – yes THAT “Christ” – told the religious of His days on earth to “go and learn what this means: I will have mercy and NOT sacrifice.”

Now, does “Lent” help a RC understand “Christ’s sacrifice?” Hardly. The ONE THING RC’s do NOT understand is the substitutionary sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is to say the vicarious nature of his sufferings and death. Further, they do not understand the sufficiency, the completeness of His sacrifice. Instead, lacking this understanding – and the faith which follows – they come to us as if “brothers and sisters” and try to sell their religion to us, while they claim to be sacrificing Jesus bodily every day in their hideous idolatrous practice.

My brothers and sisters don’t participate in the hideous idolatry that is the Catholic mass. They don’t countenance the parading around of (mostly homosexual) clergy that call themselves “fathers.” They believe the Holy Spirit, and not some “Pope” with a funny hat, is the Vicar of Christ on earth. They find that “faith comes by hearing … the Word of God,” and that the traditions of men make that of no effect.

I agree with Rick A. here that true Christians should challenge the practices and beliefs of their RC acquaintances and friends. They should ask them why they are weeping for Tammuz when Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for their sins. They should ask them why they are hoping they might find some way to heaven when Jesus Christ offers them eternal life, starting right now, if they will simply receive Him for Who He is: the Savior of the world Who conquered sin and death, and proved it in His resurrection out from the dead. Indeed, he had power to lay His life down, and He had power to take it up again.

Regarding Lent itself, again, it helps. It shouldn’t be followed merely because it’s instructed, but because every Catholic should understand it’s our method/tool of bringing us closer to Christ. As someone wrote above, diet coke and chocolate to not take us away from Christ, and abstaining from them doesn’t bring us closer. But using abstinence as a tool, a reminder, an experiential method to understand Christ’s sacrifice…I’ll say again….it helps.

I hear many MANY people question why it’s necessary to attend church on Sunday. “…Anyone could just pray on their own…”. Yes, in theory anyone could, but they DON’T! Attending church HELPS. But in the same way, attending church while thinking about work or football isn’t what brings us closer to Christ. The two must go hand in hand…guidance from the Church and our own devotion.

I would encourage every Catholic to better understand their own Lenten sacrifice. And I would equally encourage non-Catholic Christians to 1) reach out to Catholics whom they see as abstaining from diet coke without any consideration for Christ and challenge them how it helps them get closer to Christ, and hopefully they will become better educated Catholics and be closer to Christ than their Lenten sacrifices show…and 2) have a little more understand about our methods. We are brothers and sisters.

You probably also realize that Romans 14 is about receiving a WEAKER brother as a brother, regardless of his errors and WEAKNESSES, not that you never mention them, or help him to be free from such things, as his conscience allows. Romans 14 does NOT allow for such a WEAK brother to teach others to join with him in his WEAKNESS.

So, if you want to practice your religious behavior, it will not have an impact on me receiving you as a brother, assuming you have the testimony of Jesus Christ, of which you haven’t stated. But I will not permit that kind of false teaching to go unchallenged to the rest of my brothers and sisters, to stumble them.

After you finish with Romans 14, read Colossians 2 . You will find the man of God lives by grace through faith, the same way he received Christ Jesus in the first place (v6), departing from the traditions of men, including taste not, which are NOT beneficial to him. Go ahead and read the entire chapter.

And again, lent is not fasting. If you want to fast, fast to yourself, by yourself, and have your reward before God. Don’t make a pact with everyone around you to merely abstain from something silly for 40 days, once a year, and then go around pronouncing your great sacrifice. You have your reward in full.

However this doesn’t mean the Lenten season is a bad thing for Christians. It all depends on how one uses it. Currently, the Lenten season is viewed as a preparation for the holy week and specifically Easter for all Christians. This period is supposed to bring each Christian into a closer relationship with God and to remember the sacrifices that were made by Jesus in order for our salvation.

One of the sacrifices made was Jesus’ 40 day fast in the desert. Since the Lenten period is 40 days, this is supposed to be a period for Christians to remember this sacrifice made by Jesus. Now, people can do this in any fashion. They could do anything from simply remarking on his sacrifice to actually fasting for a 40 day period.

Now, depending on your source fasting can be defined as either “abstaining from all food” or “eating only sparingly or of certain types of food.” I’m sure we’re all aware that the Bible does not support “food bans” like the bans used by other religions. So, as I stated earlier, this clearly points to the fact that not partaking in the lent season is not a sin.

But, if a person uses this lent season to comemorate Jesus’ sacrifice, what makes it any different than Holy Communion? We all know that when we take the wine and bread it is because Jesus also used wine and bread on the Last Supper. The main idea for this is to recognize the Last Supper and our salvation.

The lent season can be recognized in a similar fashion. Many people eat only certain foods on Fridays during the lent season (fish). This is not required, but can be used to symbolize Jesus’ sacrifice in the desert. However, food doesn’t have to be used, just as a person doesn’t necessarily have to drink wine and eat bread to be forgiven for their sins. A person could simply use prayer or just recognize Jesus’ sacrifice.

And let us not forget Romans 14:

“Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.”

I also at one time believed the same thing the author here believed, until i studied a little more and found that the facts demonstrate that lent was practice by the apostles and has been dated back before Constantine and the organizing of Christianity.

Now I do agree with not practicing lent in the way the roman Catholics do so. They can really “religionize” something. But Lent is a great way for many believers to realign themselves with the cost of the gospel. It realigns us to the reality that we are called to live holy, dedicated lives to Christ. Period. There is no getting away from that high call.
This part of the gospel is hard for many to understand because Christianity has become more about what you believe and not how you live. We love to argue about how this belief is wrong and how that belief is wrong all the while missing the point that it is in how one lives that makes the real difference. Jesus said “why do you call me lord and not do what I commanded” and “not everyone who calls me lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my father in heaven” Paul calls us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God.

Now participating in lent does not achieve any of this in and of itself, and not participating in it doesn’t either. Lent is about the personal reflection and intentional devotion. It can help build Christian character. It helps with our spiritual formation. A term and concept almost completely lost in this day and age.

My fear is that the reality is that during the reformation the fear of being “to roman catholic” by well intentioned but ignorant people, we have lost a lot of good Christian character building exercises. They threw the baby out with the bathwater which was wrong. In my opinion anyway.

In Christ