Lent was in more traditional times a period of self-purification, purging the body to elevate the soul to a higher plane. In a funny way, the busy recycling centres of modern Ireland have replaced the confessional. You bring your consumerist excess and in return for a charge (penance?) you drive off lighter and freer, with even a possible smugness that some of your deposited items can be recycled.
But God in his centuries old tangled dance with humanity has a more radical idea of us. He doesn't make junk and he doesn't like waste. We get a glimpse of God, of ourselves and our attitudes in what we call the parable of the prodigal son. “Prodigal” means “wasteful” but that title came much later. He didn't tell the story to relate how wasteful we are – but to show us how lavish, how prodigal God's love is for his children.
Despite the reputation Christians sometimes have for carrying round a burden of guilt, Lent isn't a masochistic display of how bad we are - it is a celebration of our father's prodigal, wasteful love. God doesn't stand at a distance and say – 'if you change - then I'll love you'. “No” says Jesus. He breaks into a divine trot at the first glimpse of you. Even a recycling centre will deem some of your cast-offs as general waste - beyond recycling, but in the divine way of looking at things, grace is a powerful thing. It changes lives and worlds; and it can never be wasted.
(Comments to Tom at tomascox@eircom.net )