Ashes, Sackcloth and Tears
Lent kicks off with that evangelical call: Repent and believe the Good News. Lent is really a time to renew one's life. The things to be done emerge from the Liturgy of Ash Wednesday: Pray, Fight evil by fasting, and offerings.
Then, we have Ashes calling us to the reality of our humanity. We are "made of clay", simple earthenware which should by all means "bring us down" to our senses. That act of imposition of ashes right on our foreheads makes us reflect [moreover when we see ashes on the foreheads of our brothers and sisters]. We are not only reminded of our precariousness but also of the need to rely on God. That cannot be possible unless we are humble enough to take seriously the call to repent and believe the Good News!
The image of sackcloth is very touching. We are not dressed in "purple linen". Nothing close to that. We dress in the rough sackcloth [made of sisal threads!] to remind us of our duty to fight the evil. What evil? The evil within and the evil without. The evil within if fought, yes, by prayer and fasting. We have once more to "go down into our hearts" in a gesture of kenosis, wherein we find out our true selves. We discover how we have thought of ourselves highly forgeting that we are mere clay. We also find out that we have forgotten our duty to seek the face of the Lord. We also find out [to our surprise!] that we have cheated others and even ourselves. We begin to feel "our feet" below and we discover we have to walk. Fasting makes sense here.
We fast because we want to reduce our attention to the bodily and mundane in order to attend more to the spiritual and heavenly. We fast in order to come to terms with the fact of our weak and defenseless we are without God. If our bodies depend on food and drink, things are are so low, then imagine how disoriented we are to fix our gaze on the totally worldly things.
We deny ourselves something precious so as to pass it over to somebody else who is more in need than we are. That giving, that almsgiving enters our attitude. Forty days are enough to help us begin forming a habit of giving alms, not from the superflous but from our very basic needs!
Bringing alms to the poorest, the sick, the elderly and the like helps us come close to broken humanity. We can by so doing see these realities and let them touch us. We now sends tears moved by compassion. We now sends tears that purify our hearts. (Do you remember the call to cry with the crying and rejoicing with those rejoicing?) Lent helps us fulfill this and other calls. In fact, almsgiving extended would help many reach self-giving.
For us self-giving is very much in line with Jesus' passion and death on the Cross. In sackcloths, with ashes, and tears, we can go to our brothers and sisters in need. We go to them as people in need of healing and not as healers, as people in need of consolation and not consolers.
St Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, like many other saints, can become our companion in this lenten observance. He says, "True devotion in the Little House of the Divine Providence (Cottolengo), consists in common prayer, and in using our bodies and souls in the service of the poor, overcoming every ill-feeling during he exercise of Charity."
Try that today. May be lent will have a deeper meaning for you this way.
Then, we have Ashes calling us to the reality of our humanity. We are "made of clay", simple earthenware which should by all means "bring us down" to our senses. That act of imposition of ashes right on our foreheads makes us reflect [moreover when we see ashes on the foreheads of our brothers and sisters]. We are not only reminded of our precariousness but also of the need to rely on God. That cannot be possible unless we are humble enough to take seriously the call to repent and believe the Good News!
The image of sackcloth is very touching. We are not dressed in "purple linen". Nothing close to that. We dress in the rough sackcloth [made of sisal threads!] to remind us of our duty to fight the evil. What evil? The evil within and the evil without. The evil within if fought, yes, by prayer and fasting. We have once more to "go down into our hearts" in a gesture of kenosis, wherein we find out our true selves. We discover how we have thought of ourselves highly forgeting that we are mere clay. We also find out that we have forgotten our duty to seek the face of the Lord. We also find out [to our surprise!] that we have cheated others and even ourselves. We begin to feel "our feet" below and we discover we have to walk. Fasting makes sense here.
We fast because we want to reduce our attention to the bodily and mundane in order to attend more to the spiritual and heavenly. We fast in order to come to terms with the fact of our weak and defenseless we are without God. If our bodies depend on food and drink, things are are so low, then imagine how disoriented we are to fix our gaze on the totally worldly things.
We deny ourselves something precious so as to pass it over to somebody else who is more in need than we are. That giving, that almsgiving enters our attitude. Forty days are enough to help us begin forming a habit of giving alms, not from the superflous but from our very basic needs!
Bringing alms to the poorest, the sick, the elderly and the like helps us come close to broken humanity. We can by so doing see these realities and let them touch us. We now sends tears moved by compassion. We now sends tears that purify our hearts. (Do you remember the call to cry with the crying and rejoicing with those rejoicing?) Lent helps us fulfill this and other calls. In fact, almsgiving extended would help many reach self-giving.
For us self-giving is very much in line with Jesus' passion and death on the Cross. In sackcloths, with ashes, and tears, we can go to our brothers and sisters in need. We go to them as people in need of healing and not as healers, as people in need of consolation and not consolers.
St Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, like many other saints, can become our companion in this lenten observance. He says, "True devotion in the Little House of the Divine Providence (Cottolengo), consists in common prayer, and in using our bodies and souls in the service of the poor, overcoming every ill-feeling during he exercise of Charity."
Try that today. May be lent will have a deeper meaning for you this way.
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