Angelina WagnerI never knew how controlling salt could be.
For the Lenten season this year, I gave up sprinkling salt on food items. Every year I try and give up something that I know will be hard because I do not see a point in giving up something that will be easy to let go.
Many people, Catholic and non-Catholic, ask a valid question during the Lenten season: why give up anything at all?
The main reason a good majority of Catholics do not sacrifice anything for Lent is because they are too lazy, spoiled or greedy. These people are known as “Easter-Christmas” Catholics; the kind who go to mass on Christmas and Easter.
The reason I give up things for Lent is because it teaches me about control and sacrifice. My family is a very devout religious family; unfortunately right now I do not fall under that category. But, because of tradition and what sacrificing still teaches me, I give things up for Lent.
Sacrificing a beloved item, whether it be food, soda, television, a favorite four-letter word or sodium chloride, instills control and an important lesson I have learned from the first time I started giving up things for Lent: it is hard to sacrifice what you love, but someone else is sacrificing something bigger and more difficult.
This year’s Lenten sacrifice was especially important because I gave up the thing I love the most and did not cry about it this year because there are people in Iraq this very second fighting for their survival. Giving up taste in macaroni and cheese seems a lot less petty, doesn’t it?
Posted to the web by Matthew Cavalier
