Well, next there is the abstinence from flesh-meat. Some seem to think this dreadful. "Oh!" they will say, "I can't eat fish; it makes me sick." Indeed? Perhaps you are not very hungry, and do not need anything very much. When you are really hungry the fish will not taste so bad. But, then, who, except indeed the fisherman, wants you to eat fish? I do not think there is any law requiring it to be eaten; and if it has such a bad effect on you I would let it alone and try something else. And though fish is so uneatable, perhaps an oyster or two might now and then be worried down.
Now, after the fast and abstinence, what is left? Really nothing at all in the law of the church, at least in black and white. There is, however, a custom, having about the force of law, prohibiting such parties and theatre-going as would be allowable enough, at other times. But have not you had a pretty good chance for these amusements for the last few months? And, if you are in the habit of some indulgence of this kind, a little quiet at home might be agreeable by way of a change.
But perhaps you do not like so much church-going. Well, this is not absolutely required of you. But it certainly is expected; and it will be well to cultivate a taste for it. Ought it to be such a great penance for a Christian to come and spend a little while in the presence of Him with whom he hopes to dwell for ever?
I think, then, that if you will look at Lent in the right light it will not seem so very grievous. It may be even that you will feel that now is a time to be a little generous with our Lord; and, since he does not ask much, you may be disposed to give him a little more than he absolutely demands.
_Brethren, we exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain. _
What is this receiving of God's grace in vain, my brethren, against which St. Paul warns us in these words of the Epistle of to-day? It is receiving it and making no use of it; receiving it only to waste it and throw it away.
We are all the time receiving graces from God. Every day, every hour he is giving them to us. For what is a grace? It is a help, a means to our salvation which comes from him. And these helps he gives us continually, by instructions, by admonitions, by good examples; by the evidences which he puts all around us of the shortness and uncertainty of life, of the instability of earthly riches and happiness, of the peace which virtue gives, of the misery which comes from sin. All these and countless other helps to lead us, almost to force us, into the way of his commandments are lavished on us incessantly. They come more or less to all men, but most of all to us children of his holy Catholic Church, who have the full light of his faith, the full teaching of his law.