Word to the Wise
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 - Ash Wednesday
[Joel 2:12-18 and 2 Cor 5:20-6:2 and Matt 6:1-6, 16-18]Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. [Joel]
Which is more difficult: to rend the heart or to rend the garments? I suspect the garments would win out for most folks in Lent. That usually means "giving up" something that we'll go back to doing after Lent is over. Yes, rending the garments might include even going to Mass every day. Going to confession might be closer to rending the heart but what happens after we exit the confessional? Rending the heart may mean a "hidden Lent" but it may be the most productive one.
What do I mean then? After all, most dioceses do impose a "public" penitential practice such as fast and abstinence [Ash Wednesday and Good Friday] and abstinence [no meat] on the Fridays of Lent. Those serve as minimal reminders [along with purple vestments!] of the season, which finds its whole purpose in Holy Week. But do they "rend the heart?" I suggest that reading the passion account in one of the gospels [beginning with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem] and then evaluating our lives in the light of all that Jesus underwent is a good beginning. This is a broader perspective than the Way of the Cross, a devotion that helps the process to some extent.
Lent points us to the cross and resurrection. Rending the heart means "dying" to whatever in our lives is deadening - addictions, hatreds, poor care of our health, etc. - so that we can "rise" with Jesus to a new life. What does "picking up where we left off" after Lent accomplish? The ashes we receive today are not simply a reminder that we are "dust" but can be an invitation to a resurrection and new life in Christ. AMEN