On Ash Wednesday the whole Church gathers to begin the journey of Lent. It is striking to see large crowds gathering in churches, in the middle of the week, to be marked with the penitential sign of ashes. What the prophet Joel declares in today’s first reading comes to a fulfillment: we gather in an assembly and proclaim a fast. Together we turn from our sins and do penance. Everybody – elders, children, infants at the breast, bride and bridegroom – we are all called to repentance because we are all afflicted with the sin condition, the effects of original sin. Lent addresses the whole Church and each of us personally, calling us forth to deal with our fallen condition. It is a grace-filled time to seek a deeper relationship with the Lord through the Sacraments and prayer.
Joel tells us to rend our hearts, not our garments. To “rend” means to tear apart. Rending our hearts is an interior tearing away of sin. We acknowledge our sins in the light of the great mercy of God, who loves us and wants to make us whole. Today’s Gospel teaches us that this interior rending means shedding our superficial lies and our attachment to exterior performances. Jesus tells us: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.” We are called to be true before God in the secret place, the “inner room” of our heart. “When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” There, out of the spotlight of other people’s opinions and expectations, we are simply creatures before our Creator, children in the presence of our loving Father.
In stark contrast to this is the current climate of social media, such as Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, where people deliberately put themselves on display for all to see, documenting numerous details of their daily life. Lent is a good time to pull back – to “fast” – from the public forum and to focus more on the interior life, where God dwells. He often works in silence and hiddenness, without a big fanfare. So we need times and places for silent prayer. If we are always busy about the surface circumstances of our life, we may not hear him.
Humble repentance and gratitude give us a beautiful way to start prayer. We acknowledge our nothingness before God and our absolute dependence on him. In prayer, we are not simply demanding favors from God. We thank him and praise him for his love and for all the great things he has done. The problem is that we are often selfish and focused on ourselves, so we tend not to think of others, even God. To fulfill the two great commandments, to love God and love our neighbor, we must get the focus off ourselves. How do we do this? Through repentance and gratitude. Repentance empties us of our prideful self-love, and gratitude allows us to be filled with God and his grace. When we are grateful, we can more easily be moved to love others, as God loves us.
This Lenten Season is a time of great grace and opportunity! It is sacred time, a time set aside by Mother Church to form our minds and hearts in the deeper understanding and practice of our Faith. St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians tells us specifically that “now is the day of salvation!” The same time frame is echoed in the reading from Joel, “even now, says the LORD, / return to me with your whole heart.” God is urging us – whatever may be in our past or our future – to make peace with him now, in the present moment. We begin the forty-day journey with our eyes fixed on the Lord.
Lent reminds us that our hope is in the Lord, not in the passing things of this world. The lesson of ashes is that earthly things, even our own bodies, do not last. The palms which were symbols of glory on Palm Sunday have now become the ashes used in today’s Mass; sic transit gloria mundi – so passes the glory of the world! Ash Wednesday calls us to conversion of heart, to forsake everything in order to be reconciled with God. It is a call to “become the righteousness of God,” for we are created in his image and likeness. The call is urgent: “Even now, says the LORD, / return to me with your whole heart.” “Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!”
In the grace-filled Season of Lent, how will I seek a deeper relationship with the Lord through the Sacraments and prayer? Why is it important for me to fast from excessive use of social media during Lent? In what concrete ways will I practice prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in this holy Season?
Excerpt from The Anawim Way, Volume 22, no. 3. More information about The Anawim Way may be found here.