Lingering over Lamentations......
Why is the idea of dwelling on our failures, our mistakes, our sins is so unpleasant? We convince ourselves that it is not healthy, that we are becoming too introspective, that guilt and shame are not helpful emotions.
Yet this reluctance is a recent thing- not that long ago, Lent was a familiar season and still in many countries Mardi Gras is a major celebration before the serious business of Lent begins. Even the atheist Alain de Botton acknowledges that the idea of penitence has value
"A period in which human error is proclaimed as a general truth makes it easier to confess to specific infractions. It is more bearable to own up to our follies when the highest authority has told us that we are all childishly yet forgivably demented to begin with. So cathartic is the Day of Atonement, it seems a pity that there should be only one of them a year. A secular world could without fear of excess adopt its own version to mark the start of every quarter." Religion for Atheists
It seems that many agree facing up to our inadequacies, our weaknesses and our mistakes could be a good place to start our journey towards the light of Easter...
Yet this reluctance is a recent thing- not that long ago, Lent was a familiar season and still in many countries Mardi Gras is a major celebration before the serious business of Lent begins. Even the atheist Alain de Botton acknowledges that the idea of penitence has value
"A period in which human error is proclaimed as a general truth makes it easier to confess to specific infractions. It is more bearable to own up to our follies when the highest authority has told us that we are all childishly yet forgivably demented to begin with. So cathartic is the Day of Atonement, it seems a pity that there should be only one of them a year. A secular world could without fear of excess adopt its own version to mark the start of every quarter." Religion for Atheists
It seems that many agree facing up to our inadequacies, our weaknesses and our mistakes could be a good place to start our journey towards the light of Easter...
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