By whatever name it is called, Carnival, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Fastnacht, people know Mardi Gras, whether Catholic or not. Whether they know the purpose of it is another matter, since Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the best known example of the celebration in North America, seems to be a celebration of cheap beads, alcohol, and breasts. Not exactly faith, hope and charity, unless they are the names of soon to be repentant young women on Bourbon Street.

The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is a day of celebration, truly, in preparation for Lent, in which, traditionally, many foods, such as butter, oils, eggs and flour were used up to get ready for Lenten fasting. Given that these celebrations developed long after the New Testament was written, what passages best speak to the preparation for Lent? The readings for the Monday (James 1:1-11) and Tuesday (James 1:12-18) of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time speak both to the trials that tempt us from the path of God and that besiege us while we are on the path of God.

A key word that binds together the Monday and Tuesday readings is peirasmos, or trial, which is translated as such in the NAB in James 1:2, but is then translated as “temptation” in 1:12-15, though with good reason, since James 1:12-16 hearkens to the “Lord’s Prayer” and the traditional rendering of peirasmos in the “Lord’s Prayer” is temptation. Nevertheless, we should keep in mind the dual sense of peirasmos: trial/temptation. Another key word for me in these passages is the word teleios, which is translated as “perfect” in 1:4 and a verbal form in 1:15, apotelestheisa, which is translated there as “reaches maturity.” Finally, I want to focus on hypomene, “perseverance” or “endurance” in 1:3 and 1:12.

Trials might be actual challenges that come our way in terms of job loss, or death of a friend or family member, or simply an attempt to try to live a holy life in which we seem always to stumble, through which we must persevere in our faith, struggling to make sense and meaning out of our loss. Trials might also be seen more in terms of yielding to desires, grasping for pleasures instead of virtues, as James warns us in 1:12-15. James tells us, though, to “consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (1:2-4). This is easier to read, and to say, than it is to do, but to what extent do we take it seriously when confronted with trials? My basic instinct is to recoil from trials, but on the other hand, I tend to be stubborn and to persevere no matter how disconcerting and discouraging my sins and their stupid prevalence because I do not know what else to do. Perseverance matters, James tells us, it matters in creating “perfect” Christians, which might be better seen as those who have been refined by fire, who have become “whole,” “complete,” or even “mature” in their faith. Says James in 1:12: “Blessed is he who perseveres in temptation,
for when he has been proven he will receive the crown of life that he promised to those who love him.”

Given that trials and temptations will come, and the rewards for perseverance, what are the options? Since we are sinners, we will sometimes give in to our weaknesses and it is there that we have a decision to make. Do we persevere in the faith, pick ourselves up, and learn anew the depth of our faith? Or do we give up? A comedian jokes about his grandfather telling his mother, “that boy has a lot of quit in him.” It makes my teenage son howl with laughter: the idea of “quit” is a compelling one at age 13, when you have to figure out your gifts, your talents, your time, and what paths you should pursue. At that age, sometimes you have to choose another path or another use of your time – “a lot of quit” does not describe him at all – but there is one path on which we must all simply persevere, and that is the path of virtue or righteousness. James writes that “each person is tempted when lured and enticed by his desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death” (1:14-15).

Just as faith can reach “maturity,” so, too, can sin. So if and when you stumble, whether at Mardi Gras or during your Lenten fast, there is no option but to get up, dust yourself off, and persevere, endure, on the path of righteousness. Keep on marching, for who dat, who dat, who dat say they gonna’ beat these saints?

John W. Martens

 

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.