Word to the Wise
Thursday, February 15, 2024 - Thursday after Ash Wed.
[Deut 30:15-20 and Luke 9:22-25]"The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.... If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it, What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?" [Luke]
Jesus' words are spoken after the first of three predictions of his death and resurrection. But, in the telling of this by the evangelist Luke, is Jesus speaking only about himself? Is he not, rather, making a prediction about anyone who follows him? Lent brings us face to face with the fundamental realities of death and resurrection in Christian faith. These are not simply events at the end of life or the end of time. They are a continual process. "Dying" to oneself and rising in new life are a daily demand.
On Ash Wednesday we accepted ashes on our forehead as a sign of repentance (dying to oneself). But it is not repentance for repentance' sake, it is for the sake of new life. Although "giving up something" and attending the devotion of the Way of the Cross, and receiving the sacrament of reconciliation can be important parts of this during Lent, we can do more by intentionally entering into the story of Holy Week, to which Lent is pointing us. One way to do this is by reading each of the four accounts of the Passion in the gospels and letting those give light and life to our observance of Lent. Where is Jesus' death and resurrection at work in our own lives? AMEN