This Wednesday;*the 23rd of February, marks the be- ginning of the Lenten sea- son. " So what," you prob— ably say. It may be an injustice to attribute this attitude to university students but I feel it is veyy prevalent’-'and very lamentable. After all, most students will readily profess themselves to be Christians but remain in- different to the Easter event. Perhaps it has be— come fahhionable for Christ- ians simply to have.good intentions towards our co—

r,

habitants on earth; perhaps

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BURROV or SOKROW

Easter the vertical dimension of

Christianity is nothing more than a great myth-—

'a great but nonetheless

archaic myth. In this

wondrous age of.science and-

technology the resurrection

I of a man is probably the

most unbelievable aspect of this myth —-and thus the indifference to the Easter season.

Is it possible that such negative attitudes towards Easter are partly a result

,of the traditional negat-

ivism many of our gener— ation have been exposed to through the Church and

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through_parents, and that in the optimism of the day

,and of youth we reject any

seemingly repressive trad- itions ? For example, per- haps you used to give up candy, cigarettes and the like for Lent, andvperhaps these activities added no meaning to Easter. But is it not our duty, as self-

:proclaimed Christians to put some meaning both-into‘ ' Lent and Easter and not‘

just reject it ? In recent times, theol— ogians have lessened em—

Kphasds on self—denial as

a preparation for Easter

.expression,

a very snecial event

and have suggested that such self—discipline, coupled with " good fleeds" ' is.a more enlightened way of preparing for Easter.

I would like to suggest

something positive that can be done to make this

Easter a meaningful time.

Well -what ' good deeds' can we, as university stud- ents swamped with exams and papers and occupied with boy-girl friends, part— time jobs and so on -what good things can we do ?

Perhaps all we can do is summed up by the much—used " we must die to ourselves "‘— or rather the false images we have developed since our earl— iest socializing experiences. We have created barriers, very high and strong barri iers in the form of social— consciousness and are, there- fore, continually concerned about what other people think of us. These barriers make is afraid to love and cause people to resort to techniques to deal with others; they cause poss- essiveness and desperate flights from love.

This Easter season the most beautiful thing we can do- the best ' good deed'

we can perform-— is to be— gin the removal of our own

barriers. " Aren't we sup— , posed to be concerned with others 7", we say in our eternally noble humanistic concern. " Besides,such self-emphasis is surely not Christian." Is it not app— arent, though, that the removal of our own barriers automatically affects "our neighbour". In the real— ization that the 'thing' inside our walls is good

we will be able to give

and receive love freely;

we will be able to tell someone that he or she is really good. And as that person sheds his or her

social-consciousness some- thing beautiful will emerge-

a loving being.

In learning to love, we will be devoting our free- dom to its right purpose. This purpose is life in the fullest sense of the word —-not mere individual, self—centered, egotistical life which is doomed to end in death, but a life that transcends individual limitations and needs, and subsists outside the individual self -of course this undertaking need not be confined to the Easter season —'but it seems to

be a good time to begin and an excellent way to

make this Easter a very special event. ,Marleee Gallant

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