FEBRUARY 17, 2010- ASH
WEDNESDAY: JOEL 2:12-18; 2 COR 5:2O-6:2; MT 6:1-6, 16-18
EVEN NOW, SAYS
THE LORD, RETURN TO ME WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART WITH FASTING, AND WEEPING, AND
MOURNING; REND YOUR HEARTS, NOT YOUR GARMENTS. We begin Lent today with three texts that confront
us with the challenges and opportunities of this season of grace. Perhaps the
first lesson to learn from the words the prophet Joel proclaimed to his people,
disheartened, suffering from the plague that was giving rise to panic, is to
recognize how dependent and vulnerable we are in this world. Because we so
readily repress and in effect deny the dangers that threaten us once they are
past, when disaster does strike it finds us unready, lacking in trust and the
confidence needed effectively to meet the threats to survival and happiness.
Joel’s message details the practices and dispositions calculated to overcome
the immanent danger and sense of helpless despair. He interprets the plague as
a testing and so recognizes a possible solution to the current plight of the
people. By fasting, prayer, acknowledgment of faults and confession of sins
from the heart there is access to the favor of God for he is merciful. He holds
out renewed hope for God’s blessing. Upon receiving a welcoming response to his
message, the prophet reports that his trust was rewarded with success as the
final words of this passage assure us: “Then the Lord was stirred to concern
for his land and took pity on his people.”
Experience
teaches those who can learn from history that this same pattern is repeated age
after age in the course of time. A discerning reflection on individual lives
and on the vicissitude of nations reveals that under varying forms and due to
various causes every human being and every society is subject to threatening
events that are experienced as unexpected, and that disrupt prosperity and
happiness, on occasion they even shake the very foundations of life. Some
causes of misery remain the same, such as disease and natural disasters such as
occurred recently in
Our
Eucharist on this Ash Wednesday is offered as a source of confidence and of
strength that as we undertake the practices of Lent we are not left to our own
weak resources but are accompanied by the one who so loves us that even now “he
gives his beloved Son that we might have everlasting life.” &
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