ASHES OF HUMILITY, CONVERSION, AND LOVE.
February 14, 2024.
Ash Wednesday.
“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Ps
95:8
A Sicilian proverb says: “Asparagus and mushrooms teach a
cook humility.” A British proverb adds: “The measure of our sacrifice is the
measure of our love.”
While some people are celebrating and singing Valentines,
the erotic and commercial dimension of love today, February 14th, we are
brought, as an effect of coincidence, to celebrate today the beginning of Lent.
Maybe a twist of fate, but it is a beautiful coincidence that Lent is also a
call to value the sacrificial love that is nourished through prayer, lived in
fasting, and expressed in almsgiving. We enter today, a season of love and
sacrifice that will find its culmination in the supreme sacrifice, on the day
of the “Consumatum est”, on Good Friday. The Ashes we will receive today are
external signs of humility, conversion, and love.
So, we are entering today a very significant and highly
spiritual season of the Catholic Christian faith and life. Lenten Season is
unique in the fact that it puts man in front of his own reality, and our
littleness, and reminds us of our need of God and of conversion to be saved.
As says the Ordo in the presentation of the season, the
annual Lenten Season is a fitting time to climb the Holy Mountain of Easter. It
is a season of double characters. First, Lent, for the Catechumens, is a time
of immediate and specific preparation for the Sacraments of Christian
initiation through the rites of election and scrutiny. And secondly, for all
the faithful as a time to be more attentive to the word of God, to prayer, to
penance and a firm renewal of life through conversion.
During this season, a particular accent is put on the
reality of sin and the works of corporal and spiritual mercy. With the
traditional three exercises of Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving, each faithful
is called to restore his relationship with God and with his neighbor. We are
urged to reflect on sin and its consequences.
This day, in a very particular way, through the blessing and
imposition of Ashes, reminds us of the need for humility. It reminds us of our
origin and our ends. Humus to humus, and that the in-between, the season of
life are just a pilgrimage period.
As people on pilgrimage in this life, we, sometimes, need to
make a break and evaluate or judge by ourselves our journey, and if needed,
reorient our lives. The Lenten Season is a per excellence time for
self-evaluation and reorientation. This takes into account the corporal
evaluation through the works of corporal mercy, the spiritual evaluation
through the works of spiritual mercy, and the general or holistic evaluation
through Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. Through prayer, we make room for God
in our lives and express the deep desire to enter into an ultimate friendship
with him. Through fasting, we deny ourselves of things that though they may be
needed are superfluous, and we open ourselves to care for others' needs. It
also helps us to give more space to God, rather than to material in our lives.
We remember through it that we do not live only on bread, but also, and above,
on God and his word. Lastly, almsgiving sharpens our concern for others. It
makes us feel and feed their needs.
This Lenten Season is a convenient time to rediscover and
practice these works of mercy. The readings today are a calling. In the first
reading, through the Prophet Joel, the Lord makes it clear to us. The fasting
he calls for is more on inner purification than mere external punishment. He
says, "Rend your hearts, not your garments." We are urged to an
awareness of our sinfulness and amend our hearts and whole being. It is not
enough to put on Ashes this Wednesday as a sign of repentance. Our whole being
should also aim at that repentance and conversion.
St. Paul, in the second reading, emphasizes that point. Now
is the real and opportune moment for us to be reconciled to God. It is the time
to turn away from every kind of evil and embrace righteousness. Brothers and
sisters, "Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of
salvation." So, "If today you hear his voice, harden not your
hearts." (Ps 95:8). Seize the opportunity it won't be given again. Convert
now and today.
How then to live this moment of conversion? The Lord shows
us the way in the Gospel, through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These,
however, should not be ostentatious or a kind of exhibition of piety. They are
to be lived in intimacy with God, so through humility, secrecy, and simplicity.
The Lenten Season is the time of learning humility. May this sign of the Ashes
be a reminder for us.
May we close our meditation with these words of the Holy Father, in his message for Lent 2024, calling us to travel this desert as a journey toward freedom: "It is time to act, and in Lent, to act also means to pause. To pause in prayer, in order to receive the word of God, to pause like the Samaritan in the presence of a wounded brother or sister. Love of God and love of neighbor are one love. Not to have other gods is to pause in the presence of God beside the flesh of our neighbor. For this reason, prayer, almsgiving, and fasting are not three unrelated acts, but a single movement of openness and self-emptying, in which we cast out the idols that weigh us down, the attachments that imprison us. Then the atrophied and isolated heart will revive. Slow down, then, and pause! The contemplative dimension of life that Lent helps us to rediscover will release new energies. In the presence of God, we become brothers and sisters, more sensitive to one another: in place of threats and enemies, we discover companions and fellow travelers. This is God’s dream, the promised land to which we journey once we have left our slavery behind..."
Comments
Post a Comment