Dot Not Feather

Entering the foreign lands of faith at Lent

02/23/2023

Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Jesus said to his disciples: "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. "When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

I just returned from a week in India for my cousin’s wedding. Traveling to another country and entering another culture is always rewarding and enriching. Even though it is my native land and home country, I always learn a lot every time I visit. I would like to point out three ways traveling to a foreign country is like entering into the season of Lent. That is, they are both foreign lands, in a sense, with unusual and unfamiliar customs and traditions. And when we spend time there we come home better people because we have learned something new and grown and matured.

The first commonality between a foreign land and our faith during Lent is that in other countries people wear different clothes. In India the typical dress for women is called a sari, and for men it is a juba, or in the south of India men wear a mund, which is like an Irish kilt. Real men wear munds and kilts. In the Church the priests and deacons wear a different vestment with the color purple.

That color purple represents repentance and penance. Some of the saints, like St. Thomas More, even wore a hairshirt under their clothes to do additional penance. Such garments remind us we are not in a festive time but a time of conversion and deepening our faith. So we can live is more seriously and soberly.

Another unique aspect of a foreign land and our faith in Lent is hearing and trying to speak a foreign language. During my cousin’s wedding the entire Mass was in the language called Malayalam. And I had to give the homily, which I did in Malayalam and in English. My Malayalam isn’t great, so now I know how you feel when you come to a Mass and hear Spanish – like a ferener!

But we also try to learn and speak a new language during Lent, namely, the language of prayer, penance, and helping the poor. This language of love, is exactly what Jesus tries to tech the apostles in the gospel when he talks about prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. Most of us are unfamiliar with this new language. Why? Because most of the time, we are talking to each other (rather than to God in prayer), or we are making money for ourselves (not for Church or charity), and we eat what we enjoy and we like to eat a lot (not fasting).

In other words, like Malayalam sounds strange in my ears and on my tongue when I speak it, so prayer, almsgiving, and fasting sound strange to us, and definitely does not taste good! But how cool would it be to become fluent in a foreign language, and the saints were fluent in speaking this language of faith: prayer, almsgiving, and fasting.

And a third similarity between a foreign land and our faith in Lent is wearing jewelry or adornments. Now, I am definitely not someone who likes to wear jewelry. But one noticeable custom in India is that both men and women wear a mark on their forehead like a small dot. You have probably seen those. That is why some people jokingly distinguish between Indians from India and Native Americans by saying, “Dot not feather.” In the past, that beauty mark of a dot carried a religious significance. But today, it serves more as a beauty mark.

In the Church we begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday with our own beauty mark. We place blessed ashes on our forehead. Those blessed ashes on our foreheads are also a spiritual beauty mark. How so? Well, it may look ugly or silly to us, but to God it is a beautiful sign of humility. And humility is the most beautiful thing in the world, at least for the eyes of God. We humbly acknowledge that we are dust and ashes, and one day “to dust we shall return.”

Today, I would like to welcome you to this foreign land of our faith called “Lent”, like the immigration official welcome me to India a week ago. We may indeed feel like strangers in a strange land, where the people wear funny clothes, speak a foreign tongue, and wear unusual jewelry. But we will spend 40 days here in this foreign land of faith, and when we return home on Easter Sunday, we will have grown in our faith and become better Christians.

Praised be Jesus Christ!