Reconcile the disconnect

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for Ash Wednesday invite us to consider our disconnectedness from God and others and take action to better reflect His identity to others.

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Jesus had a body. Here's why that matters for Lent.

In the Book of Joel, the prophet reassures the people of the desire of God to protect and love his people, Israel.

* [2:18] Jealous: the Hebrew word describes the passionate empathetic bond the Lord has with Israel. The people’s wholehearted participation in Joel’s call for fasting and prayer sparks the Lord’s longing to protect and love his people Israel. This desire moves him to withhold punishment and to send the blessing of v. 14 instead.

Paul expresses in the Second Letter to the Corinthians an appeal to be reconciled with God, who invites us to a mystical exchange of attributes through our mission as ambassadors for Christ.

* [5:21] This is a statement of God’s purpose, expressed paradoxically in terms of sharing and exchange of attributes. As Christ became our righteousness (1 Cor 1:30), we become God’s righteousness (cf. 2 Cor 5:14–15).

In the Sermon on the Mount, from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus reaffirms the rabbinic disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving as paths to reconciliation as He cautions us against attitudes displayed by the Pharisees that are connected to a arrogant “commercial transaction” with God.

* [6:1–18] The sermon continues with a warning against doing good in order to be seen and gives three examples, almsgiving (Mt 6:2–4), prayer (Mt 6:5–15), and fasting (Mt 6:16–18). In each, the conduct of the hypocrites (Mt 6:2) is contrasted with that demanded of the disciples. The sayings about reward found here and elsewhere (Mt 5:12, 46; 10:41–42) show that this is a genuine element of Christian moral exhortation. Possibly to underline the difference between the Christian idea of reward and that of the hypocrites, the evangelist uses two different Greek verbs to express the rewarding of the disciples and that of the hypocrites; in the latter case it is the verb apechō, a commercial term for giving a receipt for what has been paid in full (Mt 6:2, 5, 16).

 Dick Hauser, S.J. prays to strive to become more fully Christ’s ambassador. We also pray for a renewal of Christian joy in our lives: “Give me back the joy of your salvation and a willing spirit sustain within me” (Ps 51,14).

Lent can become a joyful season for us if we open our hearts and allow the Spirit to transform our lives. In his Letter to the Galatians Paul reminds us that the fruits of the Spirit include joy -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control!

Don Schwager shares thoughts of Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 AD that Lent reveals the epitome of our whole life. St. Augustine of Hippo tells us that there are two kinds of people and two kinds of love: "One is holy, the other is selfish. One is subject to God; the other endeavors to equal Him.

" We are what we love. God wants to free our hearts from all that would keep us captive to selfishness and sin. "Rend your hearts and not your garments" says the prophet Joel (Joel 2:12). The Holy Spirit is ever ready to transform our hearts and to lead us further in God's way of truth and holiness.

Friar Jude Winkler reflects on the process described in Genesis of cutting ourselves off from God, others, and Creation. Now is the time for a day of penance and reckoning. The Jewish way of expressing ideas using exaggeration should be considered before we abandon public witness that is a symbol of our authentic conversion of heart.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, exhorts us to consider that either we acknowledge that God is in all things or we lose the basis for seeing God in anything, including ourselves.

Sadly, the Catholic synthesis seldom moved beyond philosophers’ books and mystics’ prayers and some architecture, art, and music. Most Christians remained in a fragmented and dualistic world, usually looking for the contaminating element to punish or the unworthy member to expel. While still daring to worship the cosmic Scapegoat—Jesus—we scapegoated the other links in the great chain We have been unwilling to see the Divine Image in those we judged to be inferior or unworthy: so-called sinners and heretics, women, LGBTQ individuals, people from other races and ethnicities, the poor, those with disabilities, animals, non-Christians, and the Earth itself.

Our disconnectedness from God makes it difficult to be ambassadors for Christ practicing authentic prayer, fasting and almsgiving in a dualistic culture where acknowledgement of God is waning. Our hope is in the declaration of Joel that God desires to love and protect His people.

References

(n.d.). Joel, chapter 2 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/joel/2

(n.d.). 2 Corinthians 5, 18 -21. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/2corinthians/2corinthians5.htm

(n.d.). Matthew, chapter 6 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew6:48

(n.d.). Online Ministries at Creighton University. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archive - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from https://cac.org/richard-rohr/daily-meditations/daily-meditations-archive/

(2016, February 10). Jesus had a body. Here's why that matters for Lent. - The Washington .... Retrieved February 14, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/02/10/jesus-had-a-body-heres-why-that-matters-for-lent/