And the answer must be that maybe, just maybe, it's not religion as we know it that is supposed to be the example. The real example of religious commitment, it seems, does not come from the rituals we keep. The example lies in what we become because of what we practice. And despite the fact that we are a church-going people, it is more than possible that we have clearly not become real yet. In a culture such as this one, in fact, it's almost a shame to waste Lent on churches.
Corporations hire and fire workers depending on predetermined profit margins.
Abortion is for many the birth control method of choice in a society where adoption has never been more popular and less possible. Children kill children because gun control laws are resisted on the grounds that to restrict the ownership and use of guns violates a person's constitutional rights. Surely something of real religion is missing in a religious country no matter how many of us do our private penances. Lent, it seems, loses a little when it's confined to institutional practices and ecclesiastical symbolism. But there is more to this Sunday's gospel than simply a call to avoid ostentation.