RETURN TO THE LORD YOUR GOD

                This week, Wednesday, February 14th, is not only Valentine’s Day, but it is also Ash Wednesday.

                Lent is our season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Ancient practices date back to the Israelites. A number of places in the Old Testament speak about the sprinkling of ashes, particularly the Books of Job, Jeremiah, Daniel and Jonah. The practice of fasting was the central gesture of sorrow and repentance for the chosen people.

                The use of ashes for all the faithful at the start of Lent began in the tenth century. In many ways it is ironic that on the day we hear Jesus speaking of praying, fasting, and almsgiving being done in secret, we participate in what may be the year’s most public physical statement of our belief in Christ. As we are signed on the forehead with the Cross we are told to “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Or we hear the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” pointing to the urgency of recognizing and reconciling our sinfulness. We are reminded that with our Baptism has come the responsibility to live our lives for the Lord.

                Ash Wednesday provides an opening for us to share our faith and to highlight that our lives as followers of Jesus should be those of humble service to others.

                The practice of Abstinence on Friday’s in Lent invites us through self-denial to inner purification by God. The practice of fasting we undertake encourages us to consider not only that from which we want to fast, but the deep hungers we hope Christ will fill in us thus, bringing us closer to God.

                Lent opens with the words of the Prophet Joel: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.”