Readings: Joel 2:12-18; Psalm 51; 2 Cor 5:20-6.2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
As we receive the ashes today (this year not on our foreheads in the form of a cross but sprinkled) we want Lent to be a time of cleansing, helped by the Gospel practices, the 3 pillars of the Lenten journey – prayer, fasting and alms-giving. The forty days of Lent echo the time Jesus spent in the desert before his public ministry. Lent is meant to help us to a more effective Christian lifestyle.
Christian life does not ask us to suppress our normal desires, but to raise and purify them, for God wants us to have so much more, no less than his very Self. During Lent we tune in to higher desires, to deep-down longing for God. Jesus shows us the way of prayer, fasting and alms-giving. Prayer has first place. Our eternal relationship with the living God begins in this life. Our most shared prayer is the Mass, the sacrifice of Christ which opens heaven to us. Prayer is the daily practice of our friendship with God: it opens the way to eternal life.
Fasting is tricky for us today: I think it is practiced more by Muslims than by Catholics. While we appreciate our food and a good meal in good company, we should also find a place for fasting. The goal of Lenten fasting is not a well-toned body: it is to sharpen our appetite for God. All of us resonate in some way to the ideal of alms-giving as compassionate sharing. Lent is good time to rid ourselves of some clutter in our life. With creativity, we could do more to serve the needy, not to be praised as generous, but to imitate God’s generosity.
Lenten “cleansing” is possible to the extent that we free ourselves from infatuation with this world. It is like filling an empty container. The vessel must first be emptied and cleansed. With the ashes on Ash Wednesday, we are touching the transitory nature of things, yes, and our own mortality. We try to start Lent as humble human beings, embodied spirits who are from the earth and will in time go back into the ground. “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” But the ashes are not intended only to commemorate the “passing” of creation. The ashes used this Wednesday are made from the palms of last year’s Passion Sunday. Jesus died and was buried in a tomb, the place of decay and the place of dust — but at Easter he rose from the dead to new life.
Our destiny is NOT dust and ashes but a sharing in the Lord’s risen life, conformed to the image of Christ. Beginning the Lenten journey, we hear the call to grow more fully into the image of Jesus, a call to turn away from sin, to repent. The ashes are a sign of our desire to do just that. The traditional practices of Lent put before us the essentials for spiritual growth – a greater love of God (prayer), a more generous love of neighbour (alms giving), and a truer love of ourselves (fasting). We recommit ourselves on Ash Wednesday to build our lives on those three loves, so that we may more fully become all that God is calling us to be.