Beyond Ashes: (The Imitation of Christ) The Language of Love
Joel 2:12-18; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Looking into the eyes of her beloved, a woman promises: “in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer . . . . I will love you until death do us part!” Although this promise is made while hoping for the best, unfortunately, some have to literally live that out by supporting their spouse in their poverty and ill-health. The good news is that the promises made prepare couples for the best, as well as for the worst. And, when they have to support each other in their difficult moments, they do it out of love, the very love that brought them together, in the very first instance. Suffering with and out of love is a lot easier, because we could afford to smile in difficult situations.
Today, Ash Wednesday, the Church prepares us for the 40 days of Lent. Like couples on their wedding day, Christians entered into a covenant with God at their baptism, to avoid the occasions of sin, to honor their bodies as the temples of the Holy Spirit, and to keep God’s commandments. Lent both reminds and trains us in the keeping of those commandments and promises. Lent is a journey characterized by love, even when the going is tough. The Old Testament lived it out differently from Christianity.
The assembly convoked by Joel, in our first reading, has a precise mission —Penance: “Blow the trumpet in Zion! proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the people, notify the congregation; Assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom quit his room and the bride her chamber”. How can infants at the breast fast and the elders who are barely clinging to life, if it is not a baptismal call that binds every member of the Church? The Ashes of the Old Testament that reminded Israel of her mortality, sinfulness and the need to humble herself for the forgiveness of her faults, all look backwards to Judaism. Our gospel reading looks forward to Christianity, to a new way of relating to God: Beyond Ashes to the Language of Love/The Imitation of Christ!
In today’s gospel, Jesus changes the idea of “penance/suffering” in order to please God, to the language of love/imitation of Christ. You can only please God by loving God. Whatever you do without love cannot be for God. Here is Jesus’ formula for changing the Jewish “Penance” into Christian LENT: “When you Fast . . . When you Pray . . . When you give Alms,” there must be an accompanying smile, love and pleasure in doing all those. Paul puts it beautifully, “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in [Christ]”. We have been justified by Jesus Christ, through his life, death, resurrection and ascension. Lent is our drama of love, our display of gratitude for our redemption, and the advancement of holiness of life in order to be like Jesus-Christ.
The whole community must celebrate Lent because by our baptism, whether male or female, whether young or old, whether rich or poor, we have been made one people. As one people, we are bound together by love and forgiveness through the life death and resurrection of Jesus-Christ. Since Jesus is our Lord, leader and guide, Lent is the imitation of his life. We do not observe Lent to punish ourselves, but we demonstrate our love “for God, who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” for our redemption. It is because we want to show God love and imitate him that we have the Way/Stations of the Cross during Lent.
Parents do not consider the upbringing of their their children as suffering, it is neither a sign of punishment nor penance: they are motivated by love. Women do not consider pregnancy a sign of suffering and punishment, but the joy and love of bringing human beings into the world. Lent is not a period of suffering and penance, it is 40 days of creative love. The power of almsgiving already shows that Lent is a period of intense love because those who could not afford food can now eat well, thanks to the generosity of Christians — does that sound like fasting? “Fasting” is the shedding off of our selfishness that put our brothers and sisters in poverty in the first place, so much so that they could not afford food to eat. “Prayer” is getting outside of ourselves to talk to our enemies, those people we think are inferior to us that we cannot talk to them. This includes God himself, because we often only remember him when we need his help, so we pray. Prayer is every communication that is salutary, that helps anyone in need. God needs our prayers because we have a covenant of love with him since our baptism. Our brothers and sisters need our prayers because we form one Body of Christ with them. We need to reach out to the very recesses of ourselves for prayers because we are too busy with the externals that we forget that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit!
For our brothers and sisters, who have been fasting all year round on account of poverty, it is time for them to eat and feast, because the Lord expects us to feed them through our almsgiving. In remembrance of the souls in purgatory, the conversion of sinners, for an end to CoronaVirus and abortion, these are reasons for our prayers. Fasting must lift us all out of the poverty of selfish and greed, so that others could be made rich through our fasting, prayers and almsgiving. This is the reason our second reading calls us “ambassadors for Christ”. The world that looks for Christ, expects us to reveal him in our words and deeds.
Indeed, let the ashes on your forehead and mine, be signs that we have passed from death to life. As it is the case in most African societies, ashes are reagents that quicken the process of conversion: to ripen your mangoes and other fruits, you cover then with ashes; to take out rust and bacterias, you use ashes. May the ashes you receive today strengthen your resolve for a holy life, kill and decay your vices, and take out all the rusts of your life, amen!
Happy Lenten Season!
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