Ash Wednesday Spiritual Exhortation

Joel 2:12-18, 2 Cor. 5:20-6.2, Mt. 6:1-6.16-18. As we receive the ashes on our foreheads, we want to live Lent as a time of cleansing and holy desire that will help us to live a more effective Christian lifestyle. The ashes are the sign of our desire to grow more fully into the image of the Son of God, which is a call to turn away from sin and repent. Thus, today's first reading is a call to repentance (μετάνοια - metanoia), 'a total turn around' from all that is evil to God. The prophet Joel challenges all the people to come together and perform acts of self-denial and repentance so that God might “relent” from the punishment which the people deserve because of their sinfulness. All the people are asked to return to the Lord and seek forgiveness for their sins and practice acts of mortification: fasting and refraining from pleasurable acts. They are to ask God to spare His holy people from the punishment which they deserve for their sinfulness. In today's second reading, Paul built his teaching on the same theme of repentance. As he encouraged the Church in Corinth to be reconciled with God. He reminds them that now is the time – now is the day of salvation.

Today's Gospel presents almsgiving, prayer and fasting as the traditional practices of Lent that put before us the essentials for growth in our resolve to turn away from evil. Almsgiving helps us in a more generous love of neighbour, while life of prayer helps us in a greater love of God and fasting provides opportunities to a truer love of ourselves in the way we mortify our flesh. We recommit ourselves on Ash Wednesday to build our lives on those three loves, so that we may fully become all that God is calling us to be. We need to acknowledge our sinfulness, our missing the mark, our being away from God. We also need to ask God to help us to re-orient ourselves to being towards God. Today, we are reminded that now is the time to spend our energy and efforts on this change of direction.

May the Lord make this season of Lent a time of rejecting that which is unproductive in our life and rejoice in the new life that comes from God! Amen!! Good morning and have a spirit filled Lenten season!!!