Here we go again! Lent has returned and we find ourselves at the beginning of a great season of renewal. We observe it every year because our wounded nature requires it. It is an absolute must for a sinner who is seeking God.
We begin this forty day season with ashes placed on our foreheads...and how anxious people are to receive this very stark and unusual sacramental! These ashes cause us to consider our way of thinking! We so often focus on transient things, which come and go. They are things we chase after and worry about every day, and yet, nothing will remain. We will take no wealth with us from this life. Earthly realities fade away like dust in the wind. Possessions are temporary, power passes, success wanes. Our culture persuades us to live for passing things. What a great deception that is!
Lent is the time to free ourselves from the illusion of chasing after dust. Lent is for rediscovering that we are created for God, not for the world; for the eternity of heaven, not for earthly deceit; for the freedom of the children of God, not for slavery to things. We should ask ourselves today: Where do I stand?
On this Lenten journey that is before us, let’s get back to what is essential. The Gospel proposes a three step program that brings us back to basics: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Let’s undertake this journey together. Our parish is offering many opportunities to pray together to generously help the poor...this year we want to provide water for a school in Ethiopia run by the Religious Teachers Filippini. Let’s not allow this providential time to pass without encountering the Lord.
Listen to the way Fr. Henri Nouwen prayed on Ash Wednesday:
“O Lord, how often have I lived through these weeks without paying much attention to penance, fasting, and prayer? How often I have missed the spiritual fruits of this season without even being aware of it? But how can I rejoice fully in your resurrection when I have avoided participating in your death? Yes, Lord, I have to die. There is so much in me that needs to die: false attachments, greed, anger, impatience, and stinginess. I am self-centered, concerned about my name and my fame. You name has not led me to persecution, opposition or rejection. So I see how little I have died with you and gone your way. O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen.
