I am always amazed at how public media latches onto certain Christian seasonal themes. The obvious ones of Christmas, Easter and Halloween get a lot of attention – unfortunately not for their religious importance, but for their marketing value.
The other day, I saw something new. Advertisers are now drawing attention to plant-based meat substitutes as a Lenten food! I had to pause to consider what my reaction should be. Plant-based meat substitutes are all the rage – and for many laudable reasons. They might be considered healthier for people. They have environmental advantages. They perhaps might be more cost efficient. However, are they compatible with Christian Lenten practices?
We abstain from meat as a sign of our desire to put aside some of the things that we enjoy. Should we try to mask our abstinence with a substitute that looks like meat, may actually smell and taste like meat – even though it is not meat? Nevertheless, such a proposal may have significant advertising advantages for companies.
Lenten penances and practices are important activities for this season. Abstinence from meat is only one way we can enter into this holy season. For folks like me who love seafood, such abstinence does not carry as much remorse as it may for people who do not care for seafood. Choosing an appropriate penance needs thought and reflection to make it personal and sincere. What’s a poor vegan to do during Lent!
I have made this recommendation before and I regularly attempt to embrace it personally, namely that of abstaining from gossip during Lent because it may be a real challenge for most folks. Saint James writes convincingly of the danger of the tongue that can be a source of sin and division [James 3:5]. Rather than simply forgoing a certain favorite food or drink that we enjoy, perhaps we can abstain from speaking ill of another person.
Gossip is a treacherous source of sin when it ruins or damages another person’s life or reputation. It can be based upon an untruth [calumny] or it might even be factual. Saint Paul also urged those ancient Christians carefully to avoid harsh and damaging language: “No foul language should come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for needed edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear (Ephesians 5:29).”
Our challenge is to ask ourselves if what I am saying is even necessary, helpful or simply an account that could easily be omitted. We all can fall victim to circulating gossip as either its author or its victim.
Our contemporary world offers us an even greater temptation than prior generations – we now have many ubiquitous social media platforms to spread unsubstantiated rumors that allow people to go unidentified and clandestinely to behave even more maliciously in what they might publicly share. Certainly, gossip in today’s environment can be an ever-expanding evil – as the Holy Father himself has acknowledged.
Lent would be a fine time to control our tongues [and electronic devices] from all gossip. What a pleasant environment might result if all of us spoke kindly and truthfully about our neighbors or at least if we chose silence over censure. We might even be tempted to extend such a penitential practice into the Easter season and into ordinary time, which would then be wonderful!
(Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, writes the “What I Have Seen and Heard” column for the Catholic Standard and the Spanish-language El Pregonero newspapers and websites of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.)
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