Here’s What Pope Leo Wants You to Give Up for Lent
If you want to change your body, perhaps alcohol and candy is the way to go. But if you want to change your heart, Pope Leo XIV argues a harder fast is needed.
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Christians around the world mark the beginning of Lent with the celebration of Ash Wednesday next week. This ancient day and season has a surprising modern appeal.
Priests and pastors often tell you that outside of Christmas, more people show up to church on Ash Wednesday than any other day of the year — including Easter.
But this mystique isn’t reserved for Christians alone. The customs that surround the season have a quality to them that transcend religion. Perhaps most notable is the act of fasting.
While Catholics fast on Ash Wednesday and on Fridays during the Lenten season, many people — religious or not — take up this increasingly popular discipline during the year.
The pope has asked us to reconsider the heart of this activity this Lenten season. According to Leo, fasting must never become superficial.
During his time in Peru, the future pope often quoted the early Christian mystic John Chrysostom who said: “No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.”
But this isn’t to downplay the role of sacrifice during the Lenten season. Lent is a good time for penance and self-denial. But once again, Leo reminds us that these activities must truly enrich others: “[Fasting is about] keeping our hunger and thirst for justice alive and freeing us from complacency.”
So, if we’re going to fast from anything this Lent, Leo suggests that even more than candy or alcohol, we fast from cruelty towards others, especially in what we say.
He invites the faithful to undertake a “very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor.”
Leo writes, “Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgment, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves. Instead, let us strive to measure our words and cultivate kindness and respect.. In this way, words of hatred will give way to words of hope and peace.”
It’s a call to fast from destructive speech — to give up gossip, insults, vindictive tweets and online trolling for Lent. And it comes with a promise: if we do so, our cruel words will be replaced by healing ones, and our communities will become more compassionate.
In fact, Pope Leo goes so far as to pray for “the strength that comes from [this] fasting” so that hurtful words diminish and “the voice of others” — especially the suffering and the poor — can be heard.
His hope is that by guarding our tongues, we’ll make space in our hearts for what he calls a “civilization of love.”
This plea could not be more timely. The past year has been a cacophony of harsh words, from political arenas to social media. It often feels like cruelty is celebrated, even rewarded, in public life.
