HOW NOT TO DO LENT

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

        Welcome back. Let’s think about how not to do Lent.

        To some, rituals are a divine calculus that reckons divine favor from above. 

Such is the case when we consider Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado.”  Montresor narrates how he murdered his unfortunate friend, Fortunato.  The homicide occurs during Lent. 

The motive is revenge for an unspecified insult.  The aim is to murder Fortunato without being punished.  We learn at the end of the story that fifty years have passed.  Montresor’s dastardly deed was never found out.  He avoided the punishment of men.

Indeed, men were not the only ones on Montresor’s mind.  He also murdered Fortunato in such a way that he would avoid God’s punishment.  Therefore, on the night of Fat Tuesday, Montresor lured Fortunato away from a party to the place where the murder would be committed.  He could spend Ash Wednesday confessing and the rest of Lent fasting. Purgatory, not Hell, would be the worst punishment he might expect for his wickedness.

Since his narration occurs fifty years after the murder, it serves as a confession near the end of his life.  His confession might count as more sauce for his salvation depending on the garnishment of his penance, if there ever was one.

To his discredit, Montresor mistook shadow for light.  He missed a thin place as he put Fortunato into a dark place.

As we live we experience what Celtic Christians called “thin places,” where God’s being shines forth as a slight layer of presence in the vast space and time of our lives.  Worship, prayer, and liturgical seasons take us to those thin places where forgiveness, love, and grace are made manifest.

There is no divine calculus underlying grace, forgiveness, and love.  No menial or mortal sin we may commit is factored down to zero because we followed a formula. 

The only reality there is, and ever has been, is that God, in whom we move and have our being, loves us.

Montresor serves as a lesson for any who would coerce or cajole in darkness what shines in the grace of faith.  Had he confessed his revenge, and fasted from his pride, then he might have sought for Fortunato his forgiveness rather than his immolation.

Blessings...