Last Sunday our New Thought Gospel Choir and I (a humble soprano) performed the song Oh Happy Day (our performance can be seen and heard here starting 1:05 minutes in) at the Center for Spiritual Awareness in West Sacramento.
As I sang it, Oh Happy Day dragged me, and probably everyone in the room, along its customary route from the slow, almost somber pronouncement of the phrase “Oh happy day” to a strong possibility that the day is happy, climaxing in an over-the-top jubilant affirmation that the day actually is what we’re saying it is.
When our “new thought gospel choir” chose it for performance this past Sunday, my first thought was, “We’re going to sing Oh, Happy Day in Lent? that’s an Easter song.” I’m not the choir director or the pastor so for once I kept my mouth shut.
For those of you who aren’t aware, in the Christian calendar, the season of Lent goes from Ash Wednesday (which this year was Wednesday, March 5) for 40 days, ending in the jubilant celebration we call Easter Sunday. During Lent, we withdraw, we contemplate, and perhaps we give something up. In Episcopal churches they give up saying “Hallelujah” until Easter morning. This is why the days leading up to Lent are Mardi Gras (fat Tuesday) or Carnival—a last-minute giant party before the time of abstinence. What self-respecting recovering addict can’t relate?
Since my earthly father died on Ash Wednesday in 1987 and his birthday was around Easter, I often abstain from something in the period of Lent to remember him—after all, before he was a socialist atheist, Nick Nichols was an altar boy. Before I gave it up for keeps (one day at a time), I often gave up sugar or milk chocolate for Lent (only to raid our children’s Easter baskets on the day our Lord hath risen). Sometimes I gave up complaining.
Singing Oh Happy Day in the season of Lent made me realize that what I had given up this year was happiness itself. My pastor’s (Rev. Rick Harrell’s) message that day (available right after the song in the video linked to above) hammered the message home. While I may borrow the practice of Lent from mainstream Christians, I don’t borrow the concept of heaven or hell in the afterlife. In my tradition, we make our own heaven and hell right here.
By choosing to give up happiness for Lent, I needlessly chose hell for myself right now. How and why should I not be happy now? I am an extraordinarily lucky woman with an amazing life. Yes, I’m angry. Yes, I’m afraid for the future. But to allow that fear to destroy my peace of mind and joy in life just makes all of it worse.
Today I choose to celebrate my happy day regardless of the season. I invite you to do the same
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