Joel 2:12–18
2 Corinthians 5:20–6:2
Matthew 6:1–6, 16–18
There are a number of good Lenten verbs with their corresponding demands in our Word for this Ash Wednesday. The Prophet Joel gives two: “return” and “weep”. Paul says, ‘Be reconciled to God,” and Jesus says what you do is to be hidden or secret. Taken together they offer a guideline for what Lent is all about and our way of participating in it.
For all the prophets’ their favorite word and cry to the community which had strayed from the Lord was “return.” It implies that one has walked off the path or that one has moved away from someone and now you need to come back or to come home. Lent is the time to consider the path, the way we are walking upon. Remembering that a very early name for the disciples was The Way, Lent is now the opportune time, as Paul, says to get back on the way, to return to the primary relationship that holds us together. “Return to the Lord, your God,” says Joel. ….The place where the return happens is our hearts. The road is within. What are our hearts really set on? Our lives are to be lives of seeking God. But in the course of time the heart may have grown weary, clouded, discouraged, even worn out. So what are we returning to in Lent? Who is this God? What awaits us on our return is one who is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, rich in kindness and relenting in punishment. The Lenten way is above all a journey into a love that is the source of our being and all the universe we can see and even what we cannot see or fathom. Lent is hardly a dire time; it is the time to awaken ourselves to the love that will never let us go. We are returning to love itself.
Come together and “weep” says the prophet. Yes, Lent is about tears and crying. In the spiritual life tears and deep prayer are joined. What provokes the weeping is a heart that experiences compunction; the heart is broken. The tears can come from loss of so much, but deep down it comes from the realization that I thought I could walk this way on my own. The tears come when I am overwhelmed by the belief that I am not alone. I had trained my heart into believing that all depended on me, that I was the center and everyone and everything had to revolve around me. Then one day I awoke to find that I am truly myself when my God is with me and then I cried; I let go of this stubborn heart and found I was borne by love. Tears are about the very heart that I carry on my journey to the Lord. They are about my prayer during this time. A prayer not focused on wanting something my way, but a prayer that comes from the center of myself, the Spirit of God within me.
Today we are asked to weep together with the people of Ukraine as they experience evil in their lives. Weeping with them acknowledges a loss they feel. It also expresses our solidarity with other children of the same Father. Weeping with them also allows us and them to remain in touch with the love that will never fail, that will always overwhelm and one day raise us up together.
“Be reconciled to God,” says Paul. This too is about being loved. We do not plan out the steps of reconciliation. It is God who has reconciled us to himself. God has entered into my stubbornness and rebellious self in his Son. His son has taken up my humanity and returned with it to the Father. I do not have to invent the relationship again. In a mysterious way, I need to accept the restoration of my heart as a grace, a gift freely given. Lent is about accepting the gift of a restored relationship, opening my hands and heart to the gracious God the prophet proclaimed. Lent is about letting in the light of an already restored relationship, a reconciliation that has happened. Now Lent is the time to become a part of this process of the healing grace that God has already wrought and laid in front of us. There is a potentiality of full life and being that is offered these days. Accept it, do not let this grace (another word for love) fall from your heart or your hands.
And Jesus, what does he lay out for us today? You can call it the hidden or quiet way. It is a way of relationship. Each of us looks to be acknowledged, to be recognized and appreciated. In simple terms, we want to be noticed. Our delusion is that we think that when we are noticed by those we live with we become someone. Jesus calls us back to the center. You are already a child of God, God is Father, source of your very self and the source of affirmation of yourself. The goodness that arises within you and touches other people’s lives, let it happen for it is right and just to pray, to fast, to share your goods. But it needs no recognition from others. It stands on its own. You do it because you know your relationship with the Father. He has called you his child and has been doing that since your baptism. He continues to call you his child. Lent is a return to that quiet place within. That secret place is nothing less than a relationship with the Father, the same Father whose Son is Jesus. If you need motivation for doing what is good and upright, then look at the Son.
Lent is a return, a return to our Father and God whose name is mercy, graciousness and kindness. The return may seem hard, but if it does, then remember: the gracious God sent a Son to heal our brokenness and heal our primary relationships. Remember this Son and live from the love that he has set loose in the world once again. It is a love that became visible when the Father raised him from the dead. And Lent, it is our journey into that same love that will not let us die forever.
~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB