“BEHOLD, NOW IS A VERY ACCEPTABLE TIME.”

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February 26 2020: Ash Wednesday - A


READINGS: Jl 2:12-18; Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17; 2 Cor 5:20—6:2; Mt 6:1-6, 16-18
A British proverb says, “A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.” Another proverb adds, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if the Lord doesn't get you, the devil must.”
Today, penance of Lent has begun. We have embarked into a forty days journey of special meditation on human nothingness and God’s providential love; a love that looks not on our sins, but rather is eager to forgive till giving himself for us. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of God tremendous love that will lead him to sacrifice himself for the salvation of sinners.
Opening us into that journey, the sign of the blessed ashes is an invitation to respond to the Lord’s call for conversion. We are all exhorted to come back to him with all our heart and to express him our inner desire for renewal.
Before getting into the deep of today’s liturgy, let us reflect on the symbolism of the Ashes. Ashes are, we can say, a simple sign but with a deep message. It is not a sacrament, neither a sacramental. By nature, ashes are the most useless things. No one really values ashes, other than to be poured under trees as fertilizer or discarded as garbage. There is no household where one can see ashes jealously and preciously kept. It is rather encumbering. Nevertheless, in spiritual level, it symbolizes a great value: humility. The Ash takes man back to his origin, “Humus”, and it reminds him of his nothingness.
The imposition of the Ashes, while we enter into our Lenten pilgrimage is then, a great reminder to us that we are from nothing, humus, and in nothing will we return. Thus, these words of the priests and the ministers while marking our front head, “Remember that you are dust, ant to dust you shall return.” More than a mere warning to scare us, it is actually a firm invite to “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
Lenten season, therefore, is the par excellence time of repentance. And today’s readings are all in synchronized tune on that need. Paul, in the second reading throws it as invitation, imploring us, “be reconciled to God.” He ends his address saying, “Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Though short, these words are a strong call and give all the meaning of the Lenten season. A very acceptable time to make oneself close to God. A time to do away with sin and embrace righteousness. Lent in that sense is not such a time of self-punishment. But a time to embrace goodness, a time of victory over evil.
Our Lenten privations or abstinences, beyond the meaning of mortification must be seen and undertaken not as punishment, but as help to get close to God.
Taken in that sense, the first reading can be well understood when the prophet Joel calls us to return to the Lord with all our heart. We are exhorted to tear our hearts, not our garments. We read clearly that the right mortifications are not so much those external practices, but the internal ones and the corporal undertakings. It is not enough to have the gloomy and Good Friday faces, dirty clothes, and dry lips to say that we are obeying to the Lenten observances. We need an inner conversion and renewal.
On how to live this inner conversion, the corporal and spiritual exercises, in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus provides some detailed ways: Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting. These spiritual and corporal practices, nonetheless, are not a parade. Lent is not a time for one to make a show of his religiosity. It is not a moment to impress ourselves, impress others neither impress God. We fast, give alms, and pray, not to surprised or make a display to other of our super-Christianity. All that we do in this season, is in order for us to come back to God. So, let us not forget the real meaning of the ashes we have been marked with: humility. Let our prayer, our almsgiving and our fasting be invested with that humility. For, all that is done without humility and to impress leads to vain glory, and so, to sin. In this season of grace, let us not add sin to our sins.
In a practical way, we could resolve, in this season of internal and external transformation, to take no pictures of our good deeds and our charities towards the needy. God already sees them. So, you don't have to show what you're doing to the world on Facebook or any other social network. Secondly, do not whistle any trumpets on our fast; pray without advertising. Lent is a time of humility. Let us truly become who we are, 'humus', and we will be closer to God

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