A Quick Lent?

Lent isn't what it used to be. Throughout Christendom, churches are relaxing the rigors of the traditional time of penance before Easter.

From its roots, the word Lent--akin to the way the days "lengthen" early in the year--essentially means spring. For Christians, it recalls Jesus' 40-day fast in the wilderness, and began to be observed no later than the 4th century. For medieval man, Lent was a grim, belt-tightening time: only one meal a day was permitted; meat, milk, eggs and cheese were forbidden foods.

A Drinking Man's Diet? For modern man, Lent is hardly more austere than the Drinking Man's Diet--and it may soon be easier still. Technically, Orthodox Christians must abstain from meat, dairy and oil products; even among the devout, the rule is strictly followed only for the first and last weeks of Lent. Protestant churches leave Lenten sacrifice up to the individual conscience, although some follow a regime similar to the one observed by U.S. Catholics: only one full meal on weekdays, plus two smaller meatless meals, voluntary sacrifice of some additional pleasure, such as smoking or moviegoing. But even these rules have been largely abrogated in many dioceses--including all of Italy's and at least nine in the U.S.--and for men in the armed forces. Last week Pope Paul indicated that the rules on abstaining from meat remain "for the present"--giving force to the widespread understanding that further changes will be decreed by the Vatican Council's fourth session.

Some churchmen are figuring out other new ways to take the lentitude out of Lent. Operating on the sound theory that suburban commuters have no time to attend Lenten church services, the Rev. Craig Biddle III of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Morristown, N.J., took his services to the commuter. With full permission from the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, he turned the last car on the 7:17 to Manhattan into a chapel, held an Ash Wednesday service for more than 100 commuters. It was such a success that Biddle hopes to conduct similar worship-on-wheels every Thursday throughout Lent.

14 Instead of 40. Another proposal for updating Lent came from the Rt. Rev. Horace Donegan, Episcopal Bishop of New York. "It is less than honest to maintain that a Lent of 40 days is the final word for our age," he said in an Ash Wednesday sermon. "The Lenten diet is now possible only in exclusively religious establishments. The lengthy services with their glorious lessons have become unrealistic for men and women catching commuters' trains. The quiet pace of a 17th century Lent is impossible for people living in 20th century New York. I would gladly see Lent shortened to two weeks, Passion Week and Holy Week--so that people could take on something they really had a chance of seeing through."

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