When you have to turn to the Muslims to explain traditional Christian liturgical seasons. But that’s what’s happened in the Netherlands, where the Catholic charity Vastenaktie is has taken to branding Lent the “Christian Ramadan.” Noting that only a tiny minority of the 400,000 Catholics in the Netherlands still fast during Lent, they decided to turn to the more familiar concept of Ramadan to illustrate what the Lenten season is really about.

Let’s take a moment to contemplate how impoverished a Catholic youth would need to be, if this were truly the best way of describing the season. The Christian tradition is filled with images of our own that should represent what this season of fasting is really about. From the Old Testament, there are the Israelites with their 40 years in the desert. There is Christ’s 40 days of fasting, again in the desert, and then there is the fact that the Church has always used this season to follow the steps of Christ as he moves to Jerusalem and prepares for his imminent death on the Cross. Have young Dutch Catholics heard of the Israelites? How about Our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we really have to turn to Islam to find an image of fasting that “resonates with them?”

By the way, Ramadan really isn’t all that similar to Lent, even in spirit. Although there is fasting during the day, the night is taken as a time of feasting and celebration, and there are a number of special treats that are only prepared during Ramadan. I must confess that, even living through it in Muslim countries a few times, I never quite “got it” from a spiritual standpoint, but I can tell you that a lot of people looked forward to Ramadan for the partying. At the end of the season there is no other period of celebration — but then, there wouldn’t be, because the Muslims don’t have anything like the Resurrection to celebrate.