FEBRUARY 25, 2009- ASH WEDNESDAY: JOEL 2:12-18; MATTHEW 6:16- 18

LOOK TO IT THAT YOU DO PRACTICE VIRTUE TO GAIN HUMAN RECOGNITION. If our Lord admonished his disciples to this effect, it was because he understood very clearly how strong and how widespread is the longing for the approval and at times the admiration of our fellow creatures. In fact, the need for attention and approving recognition is essential for the healthy development of character, even for survival, from the earliest days of life. Our personality cannot unfold so as to provide the confidence we require to exercise our freedom effectively except on the basis of experiencing a consistent attentiveness to our physical and social needs. Like all good things, however, this human inclination can be over-indulged and turn into a substitute for personal development rather than a support. We can find approval, admiration, attention so appealing that we make it an end rather than a help to achieve some true value such as selfless service to others, and by this means to give glory to God.

Jesus emphasizes this concern as the one appropriate goal of any good work we perform. He states this in today’s Gospel as he indicates that it is our desire to please God that must be our dominant motive in practicing good works. That is the meaning his words when he speaks of being seen by our heavenly Father, who sees the secret places of the heart.

From very early times, the Church set aside the forty days before the Resurrection at Easter as a period of more earnest application to prayer, self-denial, and alms-giving. The giving of alms refers not only to donations of money, but all forms of kindness and assistance to those in need. Fasting from food has been a major Lenten practice from early times, but is only one feature of what the Lenten fast includes; we are to fast from selfish indulgence in all forms whether recreation, use of time and energy, or doing our own will as we go about our affairs, taking things easy rather than giving our best. In short, Lent is meant to sharpen our focus and strengthen our commitment to seek God in all we do, with our whole heart.       

The message of the prophet Joel, which places the beginning season of Lent in the proper perspective, opens with a call to interiority, to enter the heart.  The forty-day fast is not merely a temporary practice, to be left behind at Easter; rather, it is a time of personal change, a transformation of one’s deepest values and attitudes. That is the meaning of his first sentence.

Now says the Lord: be converted to me with your whole heart, with fasting, mourning, and weeping. Rend your heart and not your clothes, and be converted to the Lord your God for he is kind and merciful, patient, full of mercy, and willing to forgive evil.

The final words of this passage sum up the whole: “The Lord has been zealous for his land and has spared his people.” The whole of life is taken up in the observances of this sacred season that we begin today, in that its function is to promote within us this conviction that in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus God has already shown his zeal for the Church by forgiving and sanctifying those who turn to him in trusting faith and live out in practice the teachings his son has shared with us by his word and example. Here at this altar we thank the Father for the assurance of his forgiveness and his favor that makes present the mystery of his love in the sacrifice and resurrection of his Son and our Savior. May his grace accompany us throughout these days of Lent and bring us all together to life everlasting in his Presence.&