Taking Care of the Poor: A Lenten Discipline

The Lenten season begins this week with Ash Wednesday. Lent is a 40-day period of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (giving money or food to the poor) focused on repentance and renewal. This definition with its concept of almsgiving is ancient, with the word feeling obsolete. The definition of almsgiving invites reflection as we ponder the poor in the United States and around the world, many who are affected by the current cuts in the United States government. There are many who cannot survive without assistance. What does the call to care for the poor mean for us during these 40 days?  

Lent is an invitation, an invitation into deeper connection with God. The acts of praying, fasting and caring for the poor are scriptural. Throughout the prophetic narratives of the Hebrew texts, there are times when the prophets call the people to fasting and praying. There are also times when the people are admonished for engaging in these practices for the wrong reasons. Isaiah 58 talks about “true fasting,” identifying that merely observing a fast is not enough. “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” (Isaiah 58:4). 

Over the years, my observance of Lent has varied. There were years when I fasted and invited my family to do the same. Our goal then was to remove meat from our diet for the days of Lent, giving up meat for Lent. I have fasted in other ways too, for longer periods, and even without food. My own observances have waned over the years, and as Lent arrives, I wonder why that is, even as I ponder what this season holds for my life. 

As a minister, I have encountered the multitude of ways Christians attempt to observe Lent. The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. The ashes on the forehead are a reminder of the dust from which we came, a sign of humility, a sign perhaps that we are connected to something greater, a sign of our mortality. The ashes fade away and we return to the busyness of life worried and anxious about the things we want to achieve materially, removed from the contemplation and possibilities of Lenten observance. 

In our protestant traditions, fasting as a spiritual discipline is not often experienced in conversation. At Lent, we hear people finding ways to “give up” items from their diets. Popular for release are sweets (chocolate is high on the list), baked goods, and meat, to name a few.. These dietary modifications can be self-serving if not coupled with the spiritual intention of praying or connecting with the Divine. Fasting is abstinence from food or drink or both for health, ritualistic, religious, or ethical purposes. The abstention may be complete or partial, lengthy, of short duration, or intermittent. In the Lenten observance, one chooses the condition of the fast. How long and what is a personal matter, as is the individual or communal option. The goal of the observance is to draw closer to God, to deepen one’s spirituality, to arrive at the end of Lent differently than one started, to arrive at a new place in the journey with the Divine. 

As Lent arrives this week, I am pondering what the Spirit is inviting me into in these days ahead. It has been many years since I observed fasting with regularity as a spiritual discipline. I have done Lenten fasts, 21 day fasts and other variations as a part of my spiritual life. I found those times to be challenging and yet spiritually and physically beneficial. Lent is a time for engaging spiritual disciplines which are practices that help develop and strengthen our spirits. Fasting, praying, taking care of the poor, meditation – these are the beginning of a list of possibilities. They are meant to challenge, to move us beyond our comfort zone, to move us closer to God and fuller awareness of the Spirit present and at work among us. 

This Lenten season, I am embarking on a journey towards Easter. My choice: prayer, fasting and meditation. My choice as I observe these days of fasting is also to give to the poor. Almsgiving will be a new observance for me, the intentionality of this call to be present with “the least of these.” I will find ways to be present in community, in the places where I serve, and as I travel. Almsgiving also means supporting a United States budget that addresses the needs of the poor in this country in which we live. The poor among us are invisible, living among us and often ignored. I want to rediscover almsgiving in this 21st century as an advocate for social change and as one who is called to care for the poor.