On March 2nd, we celebrate Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lenten Season.
Let’s get to the heart of the matter with today’s celebration. Though this isn’t a holy day of obligation, most Catholics and many other Christians make their way to church on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Why?
The word Lent comes from the word for lengthening – referring to the lengthening of daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere. As the sun’s light shines longer each day, warming and brightening the Earth, it stirs new life into being. Let’s face it, most of us are wary of the short, dark, and barren days of winter. We long for the warmth of the sun and the life it generates as the days lengthen.
We mark this day with our presence because we have known the light that warms and brightens our lives as Christians – Jesus Christ, God from God, Light from Light. We long for a fullness of life in him, and we grow weary of the darkness of sin. We are here to ask him to stir within us a contrite heart, humble and repentant.
We mark this time of turning back to God with ashes on our foreheads, gathering as the reading from Joel describes, to Proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the people, notify the congregation; Assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast. But we don’t gather in order that people may see us; we are to rend our hearts, not our garments. In our almsgiving, our fasting, and our prayer, Jesus says, do not be like the hypocrites, who do these things so that others may see them. We give and fast and pray because we seek clean hearts and renewed spirits, not recognition from others.
Jesus tells us that God will see and reward us for the sincere, humble, and private acts we perform to help us grow in our love for him. God wants us to turn to Him with our whole hearts. As we do, we will discover ways we can become closer to him. We will also recognize the things in our lives that separate us from his love. We need only turn to him seeking his forgiveness. He wants to change our hearts so that his light can warm and brighten our lives, and will appeal to others through us. He wants it so much that he sent his Son to die for our sin so that we could become like him.
Seeking the light his love brings to our lives, let us pray with the psalmist: A clean heart creates for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renews within me.
Behold, now is a very acceptable time.
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