Ash Wednesday

 

Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:12-18

2 Cor 5:20, 6-2

Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

 

Fasting, ashes, and sackcloth have signified sorrow, mourning, penitence, atonement, and humility since the Book of Genesis.  We read in this opening book how, when Jacob was told that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal he "tore his garments, put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned his son for many days."  From Joel we learn how,

when the prophet announced the fate of Nineveh, the people . . . proclaimed a fast  "and all of them, great and small,  put on sackcloth . . . and the king sat in ashes."  Fasting cannot be a goal unto itself.  If undertaken without the desire for interior conversion if our fast is divorced from prayer it is nothing more than Weight Watchers without the points or annoying advice from Oprah.

 

We read in Isaiah:  "This is the fast I desire . . . to unlock the chains of wickedness . . .to let the oppressed go free . . . to share your bread with the hungry . . .  and not to ignore your own kin."  Lent’s fasting, prayer, and alms giving must be accompanied by inner conversion.

 

In his book God or Nothing  Robert Cardinal Sarah of Guinea wrote: "The relief we must bring to the poor and to afflicted people is not just material but spiritual."  He goes on to quote Pope Francis' exhortation Evangelii Gaudium "I want to say, with regret, that the worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care."  Proof of that discrimination was obvious in the sins of our public health officials, hospital and nursing home administrators, and the legion of medical amateurs who forced the dying elderly to die alone, terrified, uncomforted by the presence of even one family member at the bedside, and desperate for a human touch. There was no reason for that.  None.

Those sins were shared by bishops who meekly collaborated.

 

We will never know the number of  patients who were deprived of confession, absolution, the Eucharist and perhaps the opportunity to reconcile with the church before death. Hysteria, hyperbole, and health care do not mix well.  Much the same can be said for school closures that damaged many, particularly the poor, irreparably.

 

As was true of the prophets before Him,  Jesus' call to conversion and penance is not to be visible only in outward signs such as ashes, sackcloth, and fasting.  All three are hypocritical when divorced from interior conversion, when they are nothing more than a form of virtue signaling, rather like a drug dealer wearing a large crucifix and he or she peddles wares on the corner. 

 

Lent is not meant to be a season of 'give ups.' It is more important that it be a time for taking on, taking on extra time for prayer, time reading the gospel, or time spent in contemplation.  The time required need not be dramatic.  Ten or fifteen extra minutes

are perfectly adequate in the context of overly busy lives.  Our ability and desire to care for others, our willingness to attend to the needs of others, needs that are both material and spiritual, can only grow from prayer and meditation on scripture. 

 

Before washing your face tonight look at the smudge of ashes on your forehead, no matter how faint it has become. Ask what it means to you.  What does it mean for the next forty days? And then pray the words of the responsorial psalm, the great Miserere.

 

"A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me. 

Cast me not out from your presence

and your Holy Spirit take not from me.”

 

Indeed, reciting this short psalm daily for the next forty days would be a good Lenten practice that would yield much fruit, could easily be fit in with a commute

or coffee break and, as a bonus, would allow you to eat chocolate throughout lent, having taken on rather than a ‘give up.’

 

“O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth shall declare your praise."

 

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Ashes and holy water prepared for distribution.

 

  

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD