ASH WEDNESDAY – February 22, 2012
The Book of the Prophet Joel 2:12-18
Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians 5:20-6-2
The Holy Gospel according to Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
What thoughts run through your mind as you approach Ash Wednesday? Of course the day means that the Church enters another Lent. What do you think about Lent? I have to admit that I am a bit torn this year. Sometimes I wonder if I really need another since I have been observing Lenten Seasons for quite a few years now. Unless this is your first Lent, you have a few under your belt, too. I’m wondering what I can do to make this one different from the other forty-day periods begun in the past.
I’m conflicted about what these six weeks are supposed to accomplish even as I feel at odds with what I hear some are proclaiming to be Lent’s purpose. From what I have heard, I would conclude that some in authoritative positions would have us spend the time concentrating on how sinful we are and how vulnerably mortal. Some of you, as you stand or kneel will hear as the smudge of ashes is smeared on your forehead, “Remember (wo)man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” I grant you that remembering that we are going to die can be salutary, especially as we get along in years, but it won’t take forty-days of concentration to convince me.
Guilt for some is a dominant Lenten theme. Recently I heard a sermon the message of which was that the people should spend their Lent gazing at the crucifix and so come to realize what our sins have done to Jesus. Of course I believe that through his incarnation Jesus took our sins upon himself. His crucifixion was our expiation and deliverance, a cause for rejoicing. I believe that and give thanks daily. But there should be more to Lent than a focus on the crucifix. (It amazed me how many people thought Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ got it right. I wasn’t one of them.)
It amuses me that the faithful, as they enter the local parish church this Ash Wednesday, will find all the statues, icons, and crucifixes covered with purple shrouds. For what purpose? To add to the gloom the pastor wishes the people to experience, I guess. He seems to have forgotten that Lent is supposed to be a joyful season. At least that is what the Liturgy proclaims throughout these forty days.
I would propose that we seize upon the opportunity to make Lent a positive experience this year, a joyful one. That doesn’t translate into making the Lenten journey easy. Lent is supposed to be a desert experience shared with Jesus. Living in a desert state as I do, the desert experience has clearer meaning for me. It isn’t that today it is difficult to live in a desert climate, but I can imagine what it must have been like to live in arid waste in that time before electricity and air-conditioning. Oases don’t mean nearly as much to us as they did to those in former times. The desert experience would have been difficult. Thirst would make us appreciate the meaning of springs of life-giving water. Maybe there is supposed to be something difficult about our Lent, too, if we take our lead from the Lord, difficult, but not gloomy or morose. The difficulty comes from accepting the challenges the season puts before us, even as the Lord’s grace supports our taking them up.
I’ll be honest with you. Forty days still seems like a long time. I remember how those days could drag on to the point that I came to forget my intentions as I began the trek. I remember being tempted to think that the Church has too many Lents. Perhaps it would be more effective if we had Lent every seven years. There’s a Scriptural basis for that thinking that comes from the Hebrew Scriptures. Besides, if we are to be successful in our desert sojourn, we will have to put a lot of energy into it. People live busy lives today in a world filled with distractions that, like Sirens on the shore, would lure us to the shoals. With cell-phones, ipods and Blackberries all at our fingertips, it can be difficult to keep our focus and even harder to see Lent’s relevance.
If we are on similar pages, perhaps you have been feeling bogged down lately. My senses are sated from constant bombardment. That’s not something I like to think about, nor is it easy to admit. When was the last time you heard something positive on the nightly news? There seems to be no limit to the horror stories that graphically illustrate man’s inhumanity to man. Maybe things like this always happened, but this year the stories of children being murdered by their parents is stunning. And of course there are the stories of war and the difficult economic times. Put all that together and we can come up with indications that match the times in which Joel prophesied. And we can wonder if God’s heel is grinding us into the dust. We can forget that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness, relenting in punishment.
At times like these we must remember that it is in the midst of these conditions that we live as Church. If there is a special grace that I would pray upon the people of God this Lent, it would be that we would hear Paul’s admonition to us: We are ambassadors for Christ as if God were appealing through us. Alas, there are some in the Church today who would have you believe that it is the clergy who are the ambassadors for Christ and have the mission to bring Christ’s salvation to the world. The laity is the recipient of their mission and participates in the clergy’s call. It is as though some have returned to the pre-Vatican II Church and ignore the Council’s proclamation reflecting Paul’s preaching that all the baptized are ambassadors of the Gospel, the ordained, yes, but the laity too through their sharing in the Priesthood of the Baptized. All of us are called to let Christ speak and act through our words and deeds that imitate Christ’s. If we serve as Christ serves and love as Christ loves we can do our part to represent Christ to a world that does not know him. If we enter wholeheartedly into the Lent, we just might be reawakened and become recommitted to living our Baptismal Priesthood.
I am sure that you have heard it just as I have. Perhaps you have experienced it, too. People are struggling with a feeling of emptiness in their lives. It’s Alfie’s old question played back. What’s it all about? What purpose is there? I can’t believe that that is why some would have us believe that we are dust and unto dust we are returning. That is not the end, as this Lent will prove if we persevere to the Triduum.
Here is a suggestion as you consider going into the desert with the Lord. Think back to the early days, and the excitement you felt when you first believed. Remember when you came out of the waters of Baptism becoming a new creation. Remember the thrill when you were identified with Christ and could be called a Christian. What did you think your living your life in union with Jesus would mean? In those first heady days of faith it is tempting to think that the struggle is over and life will mean walking with ease with Jesus through thick and thin on the way that leads to glory.
When the waters crashed over you, what was left? You were stripped and washed clean. Oil poured over your renewed bones. Jesus invited you to the Table. Have you ever been tempted to think how wonderful it would have been if time and your emotions could have been frozen in that moment so that the wonder of it all would be a comfort and keep the ravens away?
I don’t know about you, but I feel my resistance eroding. It isn’t that I feel strong enough to go out there alone again to experi9ence a winter of discontent. Dare I even wonder what fresh wineskins and new cloth might mean in terms of the renewal of my faith-life and vision? The Spirit led Jesus and compelled him for his own good to stretch and be strengthened for the ministry that was dawning. What would happen to us, to the Church, if the Spirit rained down? What if the Spirit lashed out and drove from us all the stuff that surrounds us and deafens us to Jesus’ voice and blinds us to his vision and ways? How different would the Church be when Easter dawns if the Spirit rained and reigned in her during these forty days?
All of a sudden, what I said earlier about a Lent every seven years doesn’t make sense. But here is a challenge for us. When we get out into the desert with our foreheads bearing the ashy cross, let the Spirit remind us and the whole Church of that day when this new life with Christ began. Ask Jesus to invite the Spirit to lead us on and keep us from looking back with longing to what we need to leave behind. Turn away from sin and believe the Good news. And pray that the Spirit will help us see clearly what waits when the journey is over – and the possibilities!
Sincerely,
Didymus
