Dear Friends,
Lent begins on Wednesday. Not surprisingly, large numbers of
people will find their way to one of the timely Masses and services that will be held that day.
People, even those who do not frequent weekly liturgies, somehow find Ash
Wednesday relevant. We will accept on
our foreheads and wear all daylong the holy
smudge. We will wear it as a sign of conviction and a badge of commitment –
a proclamation that we are believers in the Risen and Living Holy One who died
to give us life beyond all telling. Lent is the beginning of our pilgrimage to
Easter, with all that meant for Jesus and could mean for us.
The holy smudge,
for us, is an outward sign of something deep in us. At least that’s the hope.
The holy smudge is somewhat akin to the phylacteries (little boxes) the
Israelites were instructed in Deuteronomy to wear on their foreheads and wrists
. In these boxes were written the Shema, which begins: “Hear, O Israel, that
the Lord our God is one.” Hopefully for the people who wore them they were more
than outward signs.
A variety of people who walked with Jesus did outward public
actions in his name, but Jesus was not impressed. He spoke harshly about the ones who did these acts only to be noticed, but whose hearts didn’t
belong to Christ. There was no personal commitment in them. Jesus said to them:
I never knew you.
But Jesus knows us when we try to discern God’s will for our
actions and the direction of our lives. We are called to be salt, light,
blessedness for others. When we cease to
contribute to the worlds’ overdose of violence in word and action, the holy smudge of Ash Wednesday reaches our
hearts. Justice, compassion and unity become more than causes. They mean that
God in us is active and generous.
Great spiritual gifts have been given to us. We relish them
and amplify them during Lent through the practices that are thousands of years
old: prayer that opens us up to God’s grace, fasting that makes us understand
the hungers that really matter and giving alms from our need and not just from
our overage. This Lent, I hope we can be imaginative about what these practices
mean. One Latin American bishop, recognizing that in his poor country most
people had little to eat, told them to find new ways to fast. If you know how
to read – he told them – teach someone else to read. That’s being imaginative
with one of the core practices of Lent. Poetically put by some anonymous bard:
Is this a Fast
to keep the larder lean? And clean of veals and sheep?
is it to quit the dish of flesh, yet still to fill the platter high with fish?
is it to quit the dish of flesh, yet still to fill the platter high with fish?
Is it to fast an
hour, and show a downcast look and dour?
No: ‘tis a Fast
to dole thy sheaf of wheat and meat unto the hungry soul.
It is to fast
from strife and old debate and hate;
To circumcise
thy life.
To show a heart
grief-rent; to starve thy sin, not bin;
And that’s to
keep thy Lent.
~Sister Joan Sobala
