My wife snapped a picture of me while we are on a trip to a ski mountain recently. I had my miserable Ben Affleck look going on, apparently. She texted a few friends jokingly..."Rob doesn't like doing enjoyable things."
There is something about indulging every desire and pampering oneself to an inordinate degree that comes across as...well, effete. The word derives from Latin effetus, meaning "no longer fruitful," and for a brief time in English it was used to describe an animal no longer capable of producing offspring.
Effete (adj):
-affected and overly refined.
-(of a man) behaving in a way traditionally associated with women and regarded as inappropriate for a man.
-no longer capable of effective action.
Now, there is nothing wrong with the proverbial fine wine or an expensive cigar or a nice meal. But when our Lord refers to the greatest man born to woman, John the Baptist, he says,
"What did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces." (Mt 11:18)
John is a man's man. Rough clothes. Rough food. Rough demeanor. Virile, yet chaste. And he is sharply contrasted to the effete nature of Herod who was so "delighted" with a dance done by Herodias' daughter that he is led to make an oath he will regret (Mk 6:22). The two men do in fact stand side by side in the flesh. John's head ends up on a platter, however.
Lent is an opportunity to put your inner Herod on the back burner for a time and put on some camel hair. The clothes are merely the outer reflection of the man, however. We have the opportunity to become singularly focused, like John; to go to our inner desert, like John. To exhort in boldness, like John. To turn sharply away from the indulgence of sin. To pave the way for Christ's second coming.
Related: Led Like An Ox: The Effeminacy of Carnal Capitulation
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