LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL?

A SERMON FOR SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

Today is Septuagesima Sunday, the first Sunday in Shrovetide.  We’re very familiar with most of the Church’s liturgical seasons: Advent, Lent, Paschaltide and so forth.  But Shrovetide?  Shrovetide is one of the shortest of these liturgical season, lasting from today only two weeks and three days until Ash Wednesday heralds in the better-known period of Lent.  What purpose does this season of Shrovetide serve?  Why does it even exist?  After all, in the new Church, they got rid of it altogether and simply jump overnight from the end of the Christmas season into the period of fasting and mourning we call Lent.

Of course, the very fact that the new Church abolished Shrovetide is our alarm bell that it must represent something the modernists don’t want us to know, or remember, or do.  And yes, there is something important that we must do during Shrovetide, and to know what that something is we have only to look at the name SHROVE-tide.  Shrove comes from an archaic English verb, to shrive, which means to present oneself to a priest for confession, penance, and absolution.  Having done so, the penitent has thus been shriven.

So the whole purpose of this particular time of year is to confess our sins, to do penance, and to receive forgiveness from God and the graces to do better.  Obviously, this is how the Church wants us to prepare for our Great Fast of Lent, the period par excellence to practice dispelling our vices and replacing them with virtue.

Bearing in mind that this is the Church’s practice during this season of Shrovetide, let’s compare it with what the world does.  And by this comparison let’s understand why the modernists have abolished this season of confession and penance.  What does the world have to offer that the modernists prefer instead?  After all, the whole purpose of Vatican II was to open the windows of the Church and let the world in.  The period before Lent is not known as a time of penance in the world.  It is known as “Carnival”. 

Carnival comes from two Latin words, carnis, which means “meat”, and vale, which means farewell.  Carnival is our farewell to meat, our fond goodbye to the eating of flesh meat during the Lenten season, and the beginning of the Great Fast.  Of course, “carnival” means a lot more than that, and the world’s carnivals, notably in Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans are notorious for their debauchery.  These worldly carnivals go far beyond the innocent merry-making which is perfectly appropriate at this time for Catholics who have just been shriven, and who are about to launch themselves into the serious penances of Lent.  Carnival has become synonymous with the open practice of the most perverse forms of depravity of which man is capable.

As Catholics, we must obviously reject such extreme forms of bad behavior.  There can never be an open season on sin, and just because the world lets its hair down for a few days doesn’t mean we should want to abuse this time to offend God.  Carnival is not an opportunity for us to sin with impunity.  It is a reminder, rather, of the world’s essential depravity, man’s fallen nature which naturally tends to self-gratification and pleasure, and which we, as Catholics, must always be vigilant to reject.

Nor must we act like Pharisees by rejecting the innocent pleasures that may be enjoyed at Carnival.  A couple of years ago, I happened to be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, visiting an elderly Jesuit priest who has since passed away.  I was surprised to find that New Orleans has many fine traditions at Mardi Gras, family events, formal dances and costume competitions, and a generally sensible atmosphere of having a good time before Lent begins.  All perfectly acceptable.  We just need the prudence to distinguish what is innocent from what goes beyond.  There’s nothing wrong with enjoying our Shrovetide, as penitent sinners who know their faults and are looking forward to the Lenten season as an opportunity to rid ourselves of those faults once and for all.  It’s a new beginning after all, and we can anticipate those spiritual joys just as we anticipate Christmas with the festive decorations and parties that precede it.

Traditional Catholics unfortunately have a tendency to denounce all pleasure as somehow sinful or offensive to God.  This is not the way of the Church and never has been.  Enjoy your Shrovetide, first by finding the only true joy of being in the state of grace.  Do your duty and confess your sins.  It’s imperative that before you let the good times roll your soul is firmly in that state of grace and remains in that state so you can approach the altar on Ash Wednesday with true humility.  Make Mardi Gras the truly Catholic festival it should be, and raise it back to the innocence and joyfulness that befits the last big party of the Christmas season.  God will surely smile on your happiness and bless your rejoicing, preparing your great Lenten endeavors with the richness of his blessings.