Anna Wiegand is a senior integrated studies major and writes ‘Tower of Babel' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Anna at acwiegand@bsu.edu.
I gave up Christianity for Lent a while ago, and I have yet to get it back. In Indiana, a lack of religious belief can seem radical, but I’m just one of many young people who have left organized religion across the United States.
I still take an active interest in religious happenings at home and around the world because the way other people think and the things they believe affect me whether I like it or not. For this reason, I have enjoyed observing Pope Francis, whose focus on eliminating poverty, protecting the environment and spreading acceptance makes him a man with a message that even non-believers can get behind.
For Christians, Lent is a somber time of fasting and self-denial leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. While this has little significance to non-Christians, Francis has a knack for taking Christian issues and making them accessible to a wider audience. In doing so, he simultaneously addresses the problems that many believers might have when trying to make religion relevant in their daily lives.
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Last year during Lent, Francis asked for people to give up their indifference toward humankind. In 2016, he calls for works of mercy, which “remind us that faith finds expression in concrete everyday actions meant to help our neighbors in body and spirit: by feeding, visiting, comforting and instructing them.”
Just giving up chocolate or alcohol isn’t going to cut it. Francis wants his readers to actively go out and make lives better. And honestly, what point do acts of self-denial have if they neither serve to make you a better person nor help anyone else?
Granted, there are a number of personal or spiritual reasons that might make it beneficial for a person to give something up for Lent. But the focus on concrete action is the part of religion that can make it a force for goodness in the world and I think a continued emphasis on these tangible goals is what is needed to keep the younger generations from leaving the pews in ever-increasing numbers.
True to form, Francis plans on starting Lent with a dramatic act of mercy and reconciliation. On Friday, the Pope plans to meet with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, which hasn’t happened since the Catholics and Orthodox Christians split nearly 1,000 years ago.
Through his words and actions, Francis seems to want to create a world in which the actual good that you do for others trumps all other concerns. Although I’m not Catholic, he makes it clear that I can become a participant in looking for ways to improve the lives of the people around me. This kind of unity and thoughtfulness in both religious and non-religious citizens is what our society needs in a world that can seem cruel and hopeless—especially in the heart of winter.
