Hello everyone, it’s Father Daniel Kim here.
Thank you so much for your questions. According to this list, it seems like the most common question is, surprise, surprise, why do we give up things for Lent?
Well, I’ll give you the short answer.
It’s because Christians, we are called to imitate the life of Christ, and that involves the time he spent in the desert, where for 40 days he was not only tempted by the Devil, but through self denial prepared himself for the ministry, the very public ministry that lay ahead.
As baptized faithful, we do believe that God has a specific calling for each and every one of us. By not indulging in the things that we normally do, helps us reexamine our spiritual lives, the quality of our spiritual lives, and to really get closer to Christ, which is basically what we are all called to do, ultimately.
One Lent I remember, I gave up meat. Not just on Fridays, but for 40 days. It was tough, but during the process, especially when I got cravings, I was like, ‘If Christ could give up not eating for 40 days, I think I can give up not eating meat”.
You know, through that self denial, it really connected me closer to Christ. It was a pretty meaningful Lenten season, and Easter was awesome too, because … You know what?
I actually remember it right now. Some of the funny things that I found that people gave up, this is according to The Daily Express, it’s a U.K. Magazine.
The most common things were chocolate, social networking, alcohol, Twitter, Facebook, school … Okay … Meat, sweets, coffee, and soda.
The funny thing is, it says social media here. One of my Lenten observances this year is to actually engage in social media, and I ended up creating an Instagram and Twitter account to connect with all of you. Yeah, I guess it could kind of go both ways.
It depends on what leads you into getting closer to Christ.
Anyway, that’s kind of my answer for why do we give up things for Lent. For next week, I was thinking we could do something fun.
I just listed the many things that people gave up, were the popular things that people gave up for Lent. Why don’t we share that amongst ourselves?
I’ll create a poll following this post, and in it you could share what you have given up, and if you’re successful this far. I’ll share the results with you next week.
Thanks again for listening, and have a wonderful rest of the Lenten season. God bless.
