HOW NOT TO DO LENT

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  Let's think about Lent.

Now, I'm a Baptist.  For most of my life, I knew nothing about Lent because I heard nothing about it.  In the churches of my youth, we celebrated Christmas, Easter, and, every three months, the Lord's Supper.  

The food for the first two occasions was infinitely more plentiful and delicious than the last.

Lent, to me, was lint.  Insofar as it had anything to do with church, it stuck to my shirts or it tarried on pew cushions.  

Being curious about religion, and actually studying it, can be a beautiful thing with lots of surprises.

Imagine my surprise when I reread “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe for the first time since high school.   I read it because it would be the first story my ninth grade students would analyze for a short fiction unit.  I could not believe what I saw in my mind as I read this story again.

The protagonist and narrator of the story, Montresor, had premeditated the murder of a friend, Fortunato, for no other reason than because he had "ventured upon insult."  The slight is never explained.

At the beginning of the story Montresor vowed revenge.   His revenge would come in two satisfactions.  He must exact revenge with impunity.  He must exact revenge in a way that Fortunato knows that Montresor is exacting it.

That first satisfaction is the most interesting.  As we read the story we see that Montresor planned a perfect murder so that he would never be caught.  He would never be punished by man.

Moreover, when we consider that Montresor is a Roman Catholic, we see that his plan saved him from God’s punishment as well.  

Without spoiling the story for those who have not read it, I shall indicate that it was on Fat Tuesday night when Montresor established the conditions that would cause Fortunato’s death.

That means that Montresor could activate the sacrament of reconciliation.  He would confess his sin on Ash Wednesday.  He would do penance forty days of Lent.  He would expiate his sin and escape damnation.  At worst he could look forward to a long stint in Purgatory.

Would not God have seen through Montresor’s weak attempt to avoid Hell?  Montresor did not truly repent and return to save his friend who might have survived for a few days.

Indeed, at the end of the story we learn that the murder occurred fifty years before Montresor narrates it.  Since he would most likely be an old man, even if he had been in his twenties when he murdered Fortunato, then we have something that is tantamount to a confession for us and all the priests of the world who read his tale.  Would that not be another layer of grace in the sacrament of reconciliation?

Montresor sought to kill with impunity from God and man.  Did he succeed?

I don't know the answer to that question.  Montresor was a fictional character after all.  If he had not been fictional, then the answer would depend on one’s theology.

Again, even in that case, I would not know since I believe all things after life are in God’s hands.  No mortal can make that call with certainty.

However, I do know that there are pernicious corollaries that follow many fundamental doctrines.  Poe, I believe, shows us one such corollary while at the same time showing us how not to do Lent.

Blessings...