Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Lent lasts just shy of six weeks and ends after a forty-day countdown with Easter. Meanwhile, in the last six weeks, our country has gone from being the ‘Shining beacon on a Hill’ to The Shining. This dichotomy between the holy and the profane puts us at a crossroads. Where do we go from here? I was raised Catholic. I knelt at the altar and had the ash of incinerated fronds from last year’s Palm Sunday smeared across my forehead. Believe me, by lunch time the original cross looked more like a smear. During Covid, I was not any better at not touching my face.

Traditionally, Lent is a time for penance. It coincides with the leanest time of the year, making it easier to give up on wanting things that you do not have and are not likely to get. This year’s Lent also brings the added sorrow of an ailing pope, a good pope. It is an open question whether or not he will make it to Easter. His suffering and that of those who support him is one more thing that can be offered up as penance. In the past, I have offered up penance. First giving up childish things like TV or candy. Growing older this habit persisted, even as much of my faith fell away. More recently, I have offered up penance by going dry or again not eating candy. This year, I am trying something new. I am giving up my $4.6T tax cut. Again, it is something that I do not have and are not likely to get. Leavening this sacrifice, I am willing to donate these proceeds to the poor, think Medicaid and SNAP and the elderly, think Medicare and Social Security. I believe that this is the right thing to do, the Christian thing to do.