Lenten prayers and practices during a displacement crisis

March 7, 2024

As a historian, I invite students to read primary sources with new eyes.

We encounter in historical texts evidence about the diverse expressions of religious life, setting faith in particular contexts and in conversation with scholars. But we also bring our own values and concerns shaped by life in the present and contemplate the ethical implications of historical evidence and interpretation.

This Lent, I’ve offered my own re-reading of historical texts, the prayers of repentance of Ephrem the Syrian, in a piece published with the Presbyterian Outlook.

I examine how Ephrem’s understanding of confession and fasting as a fourth century Christian theologian displaced by the machinations of rival empires have something to teach us amidst our own intersecting geopolitical crises that leave some 114 million people displaced today.

Rather than seeing Lenten fasting and prayers of confession as arduous tasks rooted in duty, Ephrem invites a different understanding from the vantage point of a displaced person. Confession of sin is an occasion for rest in the face of systems that deny vulnerable people respite and peace. The prayers of Ephrem encourage our mindful awareness as the foundation for reoriented life in society. We can consider the Lenten fast a time to repent and abstain from systems of oppression. We can rest in centered clarity, cultivating rest and readiness for the work of justice.

One of the prayers that the Armenian Orthodox tradition has long ascribed to Ephrem reads:

“Bring me, O Lord, through the ford of the river of sins,
of my plummeting, drowning, covetous course of life
into light for my eyes,
into vision for my mind,
into rest in that life,
to the attainment of Your graces, and to the path of the ways of righteousness.”

Despite his own displacement, Ephrem’s poetic language sees practices of repentance simultaneously as opportunities for rest and invitations to just and righteous living.

In the piece, I argue that “many among us have stood silent and apathetic to the ways imperialist powers acting on our behalf have worsened and profited from crises of displacement happening around the world.”

I ask if we as American Christians might reject apathy and complicity in the growing crises of displacement. I point to the work of my own faith community and interfaith partners in Central New Jersey committed to engaging in this work, who in so doing cultivate rest for the displaced and challenge to violent habits of empire and structures of oppression.

Adjusting my personal practices this lent to the words of Ephrem and the crises of displacement in our own day, I offer:

“In my prayers, I continue to grieve the massive killing and further displacement of Palestinians. My prayers of confession must cry out against the razor wire and hateful invective that mark America’s Southern border. I contemplate and confess our society’s indifference to those who have died seeking refuge, who found no help or welcome. In fasting, I confess that my standard of living in the U.S. is linked to economic and political structures that exploit and discard the poor. In my awareness of momentary hunger, I strive to be more mindful of those for whom hunger is not a choice.”

I hope you’ll read and share the article, considering the beautiful prayers of Ephrem the Syrian, and contemplating how you might fast and confess this Lenten season mindful of the injustices that have resulted in so much displacement and death.

It is my hope that ancient words of faith can still inform our practices and speak to the crises of displacement in our own day.

—Nathan Jérémie-Brink
L. Russell Feakes Assistant Professor of the History of Global Christianity
 

Click here to read the article on the Presbyterian Outlook website.