Shrove Tuesday (Mid-week Message)

Fr. Tony's Mid-week Message
Feb. 6, 2013
Shrove Tuesday 

“And if, in your preparation [for receiving Eucharist],  you need help and counsel, then go and open your grief to a discreet and understanding priest, and confess your sins, that you may receive the benefit of absolution, and spiritual counsel and advice; to the removal of scruple and doubt, the assurance of pardon, and the strengthening of your faith. 

(Book of Common Prayer)

Lent begins a week from tomorrow on Ash Wednesday, February 13.  The day before is called Shrove Tuesday, on which day Christians traditionally sought to be shriven, that is, confess their sins and receive absolution (the middle English verb “to shrive” means to “forgive, absolve”) as a way of preparing for the start of Lent.  The day is variously known as Fat Tuesday (“Mardi Gras”), Carnival (from Latin carnem levare, “to remove meat” from the house), or Pancake Day (when rich foods made from items forbidden by the Lenten Fast would be consumed). 

Here at Trinity, Tuesday evening we will be having our annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake supper and launch of our social ministries fund-raiser, the Party of Parties.  During the day,  I will be available to hear confessions in the church and counsel privately those who desire to receive the rite of the Reconciliation of a Penitent (BCP 446-452).  Call the Trinity Office  to make an appointment, or simply show up.

We often miss the point when we talk about “confession of our sins.”  We think in terms of simply violating God’s laws or commands.  But sin as a concept is far broader than this legal view.    Most modern theologians define sin either teleologically or relationally:  something that turns us aside from what God intends when he creates us, or anything that separates us from God or others.    God loves us regardless, and so it is more a question of talking about things that in our own hearts and minds separate us from the love of God. 

Danish theologian Soren Kirkegaard said “Sin is: in despair not wanting to be oneself before God . . . Faith is: that the self in being itself and wanting to be itself is grounded transparently in God.”  Confession and repentance are processes that help us know who our real selves are, and make us more and more hopeful and welcoming of that.

Again, this is an offer for those who want to avail themselves of it, not a requirement in a one-size-fits-all rule.  According to the old Anglican saying about private confession, “all may, none must, some should.”  

Grace and Peace, 

Fr. Tony+