Ash Wednesday
ASH WEDNESDAY
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your holy Spirit from me" (Ps 51: 10-11).
Lent is a forty day period. But how meaningful our Lent would be, my dear brothers and sisters, if we could every day LISTEN TO YOUR HEART and LIVE!
LISTEN TO YOUR HEART: We know that Lent is a time for prayer; but it is more than saying more words or spending more time on your knees. It is about listening to your heart. What is going on there now, today? Do you invite Jesus into the places of joy and the places of pain? What part of your heart needs to be changed to become more like the heart of Christ? What makes you sad today, what needs to be changed in your life?
LIVE At the end of each day, do you ever look in the mirror and ask did I really live today? Did I bring Christ to someone else by my ability to affirm, to help, to be quiet? I could tell you now that Lent is about penance, prayer and giving things up. You know that. But it is also about asking the hard question: how did I live today? Did I live a life of God’s expectation of me?
This is our challenge in Lent, to turn our hearts toward God.
We heard from the first reading "Return to me with all your heart" what is our whole heart?-- with a broken heart -- broken by awareness of sin and its effects -- that's what repentance is -- a waking up to the reality of sin, and a turning to God.
Our fig leaves are not sufficient to cover our sins. We need to return to the Lord who forgives our sins and welcomes us into his heavenly Kingdom.
Lent is a time for repentance, a time to look at the way we have been living, to identify what needs to be changed -- to resolve to change -- and to pray for God's enabling grace. That's what Jesus recommends when he speaks about prayer, fasting, and giving money to the poor.
St. Augustine said "The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes; you may see and be utterly satisfied."
Lent can be understood as an exercise of holy desire. Augustine points out what has become a willful blindness. We tend to fill our days with three things: work, problems and diversions. For most of us we work and try to solve problems (like health or car breakdowns) in order to have more time to spend on our diversions--reading, vacations, friends, meals, sports, games, TV, etc. None of those things are bad in themselves, but they keep us from seeing what we really long for.
Lent is a time to put aside some of the diversions and, as they say, get in touch with our true desire. Our true desire is to be like Jesus. This inner struggle between our old and new selves is the reason that Pope John Paul II could so often say, become who you are. What the late great Pope meant was: become morally in your affections and actions what you already are spiritually in Christ. Lent is a retreat period to find out the truth in us and to live up to that true nature of our life. We have to rise above ourselves.
How do we rise above ourselves? I believe that we can do this with the Eucharist and personal prayer. We have the opportunity at every Eucharist to receive the Lord Jesus. The Lord lives within us. The Lord can transform us. We have to be like the clay in the potter’s hand. To be pliable clay we must be open to the will of God in our lives. We must give up some of the control that we enjoy and seem to want to have in our lives. To open our lives to the Lord and His will is an act of faith and trust. It is to let the Lord be in control and we to submit to His control.
May this season of repentance bring us the blessing of God's forgiveness!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your holy Spirit from me" (Ps 51: 10-11).
Lent is a forty day period. But how meaningful our Lent would be, my dear brothers and sisters, if we could every day LISTEN TO YOUR HEART and LIVE!
LISTEN TO YOUR HEART: We know that Lent is a time for prayer; but it is more than saying more words or spending more time on your knees. It is about listening to your heart. What is going on there now, today? Do you invite Jesus into the places of joy and the places of pain? What part of your heart needs to be changed to become more like the heart of Christ? What makes you sad today, what needs to be changed in your life?
LIVE At the end of each day, do you ever look in the mirror and ask did I really live today? Did I bring Christ to someone else by my ability to affirm, to help, to be quiet? I could tell you now that Lent is about penance, prayer and giving things up. You know that. But it is also about asking the hard question: how did I live today? Did I live a life of God’s expectation of me?
This is our challenge in Lent, to turn our hearts toward God.
We heard from the first reading "Return to me with all your heart" what is our whole heart?-- with a broken heart -- broken by awareness of sin and its effects -- that's what repentance is -- a waking up to the reality of sin, and a turning to God.
Our fig leaves are not sufficient to cover our sins. We need to return to the Lord who forgives our sins and welcomes us into his heavenly Kingdom.
Lent is a time for repentance, a time to look at the way we have been living, to identify what needs to be changed -- to resolve to change -- and to pray for God's enabling grace. That's what Jesus recommends when he speaks about prayer, fasting, and giving money to the poor.
St. Augustine said "The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes; you may see and be utterly satisfied."
Lent can be understood as an exercise of holy desire. Augustine points out what has become a willful blindness. We tend to fill our days with three things: work, problems and diversions. For most of us we work and try to solve problems (like health or car breakdowns) in order to have more time to spend on our diversions--reading, vacations, friends, meals, sports, games, TV, etc. None of those things are bad in themselves, but they keep us from seeing what we really long for.
Lent is a time to put aside some of the diversions and, as they say, get in touch with our true desire. Our true desire is to be like Jesus. This inner struggle between our old and new selves is the reason that Pope John Paul II could so often say, become who you are. What the late great Pope meant was: become morally in your affections and actions what you already are spiritually in Christ. Lent is a retreat period to find out the truth in us and to live up to that true nature of our life. We have to rise above ourselves.
How do we rise above ourselves? I believe that we can do this with the Eucharist and personal prayer. We have the opportunity at every Eucharist to receive the Lord Jesus. The Lord lives within us. The Lord can transform us. We have to be like the clay in the potter’s hand. To be pliable clay we must be open to the will of God in our lives. We must give up some of the control that we enjoy and seem to want to have in our lives. To open our lives to the Lord and His will is an act of faith and trust. It is to let the Lord be in control and we to submit to His control.
May this season of repentance bring us the blessing of God's forgiveness!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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