The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine our relationship with God and others through the discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as we begin the season of Lent.
Return Path
The reading from the Prophet Joel urges our return to the Lord.
* [2:16] Elderly…infants…bridegroom…bride: Jerusalem is in such great danger that even those normally excused from fasting or working are called upon to participate in activities to ward off the imminent catastrophe.1
Psalm 51 is a prayer for cleansing and pardon.
* [Psalm 51] A lament, the most famous of the seven Penitential Psalms, prays for the removal of the personal and social disorders that sin has brought. The poem has two parts of approximately equal length: Ps 51:3–10 and Ps 51:11–19, and a conclusion in Ps 51:20–21. The two parts interlock by repetition of “blot out” in the first verse of each section (Ps 51:3, 11), of “wash (away)” just after the first verse of each section (Ps 51:4) and just before the last verse (Ps 51:9) of the first section, and of “heart,” “God,” and “spirit” in Ps 51:12, 19. The first part (Ps 51:3–10) asks deliverance from sin, not just a past act but its emotional, physical, and social consequences. The second part (Ps 51:11–19) seeks something more profound than wiping the slate clean: nearness to God, living by the spirit of God (Ps 51:12–13), like the relation between God and people described in Jer 31:33–34. Nearness to God brings joy and the authority to teach sinners (Ps 51:15–16). Such proclamation is better than offering sacrifice (Ps 51:17–19). The last two verses express the hope that God’s good will toward those who are cleansed and contrite will prompt him to look favorably on the acts of worship offered in the Jerusalem Temple (Ps 51:19 [20–21]).2
The reading from the Second Letter to the Corinthians calls us to be ambassadors for Christ as our experience of the Ministry.
* [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). * [6:2] In an acceptable time: Paul cites the Septuagint text of Is 49:8; the Hebrew reads “in a time of favor”; it is parallel to “on the day of salvation.” Now: God is bestowing favor and salvation at this very moment, as Paul is addressing his letter to them.3
The Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew teaches about Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting.
* [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 apechÅ, a commercial term for giving a receipt for what has been paid in full (Mt 6:2, 5, 16).4
Andy Alexander, S.J. comments that the first four days of Lent are a unit. They help us prepare for the activities of prayer, fasting, contrition and almsgiving. Today, a journey to turn to God with all of our hearts begins.
Dear Lord, bless this day by blessing my desires. Help me to know how deeply you long to enter more deeply into a relationship with me. Help me to fast from, to do without, whatever keeps me self-focused. Strip me these days from some of the unhealthy patterns that make freedom difficult. Let there be some taste of emptiness this day, and let me experience hunger for you, hunger for a new way of life, hunger for how I might serve others. Let me enter "this joyful season of Lent," and help us "prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with mind and heart renewed."5
Don Schwager quotes “Lent - the epitome of our whole life,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 AD.
"Christians must always live in this way, without any wish to come down from their cross - otherwise they will sink beneath the world's mire. But if we have to do so all our lives, we must make an even greater effort during the days of Lent. It is not a simple matter of living through forty days. Lent is the epitome of our whole life." (excerpt from Sermon 205, 1)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Joel 2:12-18 comments that every day during this season, we can return to the Lord. Not later, but now. We can make plans to fast or to spend more time in prayer or to give to those in need. Not sometime in the future, but now. There’s a wide-open feeling about Lent because God is offering us a fresh start. A new opportunity to draw closer to him. Another chance to put our love for him into action.
That’s why Lent is such a blessed season. You have the opportunity each and every day to return to the Lord, to get to know him more, to learn how to better love the people around you. When you love and commit yourself to him, he fills you with his love and grace. You do your best, and even when you fall, he takes you back and gives you a fresh start. His life can grow in you more and more every day as you get closer to Easter. It’s Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. So make a plan and return to the Lord. Even now. “Jesus, I want to use every day this Lent to grow closer to you. Help me return to you now.”7
Friar Jude Winkler notes that Joel speaks to our heart about a time of penance and fasting. Paul asserts that now is the acceptable time to be ambassadors for Christ. After the destruction of the Temple, the rabbis urged prayer, fasting, and almsgiving when seeking forgiveness. Friar Jude reminds us that appropriate public demonstration of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are not actions for self aggrandisement.
James Finley reflects on Thomas Merton’s teaching about the True Self and the separate (or false) self. Merton makes clear that the self-proclaimed autonomy of the false self is but an illusion.
My false and private self is the one who wants to exist outside the reach of God’s will and God’s love—outside of reality and outside of life. And such a self cannot help but be an illusion. [2]8
Father Richard Rohr describes how the false self lives disconnected from God and from what is ultimately real.
Our false self, which we might also call our “small self,” is our launching pad: our body image, our job, our education, our clothes, our money, our car, our sexual identity, our success, and so on. These are the trappings of ego that we all use to get us through an ordinary day. They are a nice enough platform to stand on, but they are largely a projection of our self-image and our attachment to it. None of them will last! When we are able to move beyond our false self—at the right time and in the right way—it will feel precisely as if we have lost nothing. In fact, it will feel like freedom and liberation. When we are connected to the Whole, we no longer need to protect or defend the mere part. We are now connected to something inexhaustible.8
Our Lenten journey begins with the nudge of the Spirit to prayer, fasting and almsgiving to accompany our return to a deep relationship with God and our neighbours.
References
Today we enter the time of #Lent. Our prayer and fasting will be a plea for #peace in #Ukraine, bearing in mind that peace in the world always begins with our personal conversion, following Christ.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 2, 2022
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