ASH WEDNESDAY 2007

Joel 2:12-18

II Cor 5:20-6:2

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

“'Rend your hearts and not your clothing,' says the Lord.” And the prophet responds, ‘Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”

My brothers and sisters, what is Lent all about? What is foremost in our minds and hearts as we sit here with bare feet and prepare to receive ashes on our heads and to be reminded that we are dust and into dust we shall return?

Do you remember the scene in The Lord of the Rings where Frodo and Sam are climbing the very last leg of the journey to Mount Doom ? How Gollum springs upon them and tries to wrestle the Ring by force from Frodo and fails? Left alone with an angry, sword-wielding Sam, Gollum pleads: ‘”Let us live, yes, live just a little longer. Lost lost! We're lost. And when Precious goes we'll die, yes, die into the dust.' He clawed up the ashes of the path with his long fleshless fingers. ‘Dusst!' he hissed.”

Is not this our secret fear: that when the Precious goes, we'll die? And so we try to turn Lent, this great season of repentance, this season of springtime and new life, into one more celebration of power, of machismo. If you give up hard candy, I'll give up chocolate. If you give up the movies, I'll give up the Internet. I'll give up this; I'll give up that. Just don't ask me to give up the Precious. I'll rend every bit of clothing I've got, I'll give up every little thing that gives me pleasure. I'll show the Lord God I am serious.

And yet, what does the Lord ask?

“Rend your hearts.” Lose your life that you may welcome Christ. Give up all to Christ that you may see the Father. “Be reconciled to God.” Yes, I shall arise, and return to my Father.

G. K. Chesterton had a way with words and it seems to me he captures the spirit of today's liturgy very succinctly. “The person who will not have a softening of the heart will eventually have a softening of the brain!”

Lent is a time for a softening of the heart. Lent is a time to become tender, to become vulnerable. Then you will find your true self as a gift of God.

My brothers and sisters, this can only happen if we do let certain things go. If we fast more, if we pray more, if we give more of our things away. But this is all done not to prove ourselves worthy of God, but to put us into the frame of mind where we realize that all is Gift, that all that we have is a gift of God.

Our true Precious is not something we grasp and hold and possess or wrest from others, but something we receive when we let all else go – even our very self.

So then, let us do those things this Lent that lead to a softening of our hearts. Let us search out the things that show our interconnectedness with each other: moments of intimacy, moments of friendship, moments of shared joy or shared pain. Those times when we look at a sunset and just say, “Wow!” When we glance at the starry sky on a brisk, cold early, early morning and whisper: “God, you are great.” When we look into the eyes of a young person and see there all the vitality and joie d'vivre that we have known and rejoice that it still exists and is present for another generation. Or look into the eyes of an older brother and see there the pain and suffering he bears and know in our heart of hearts that it is redemptive – even for us.

My brothers and sisters, Lent is a time for such softening. May we attend closely to the Scriptures we will be hearing in these days. May we keep our eyes fixed on the one who has given up all for us that we might share the very life of God. May we look to others and know that we are all in this together and that the good of one is the good of all and the pain of one is the pain of all and in compassion to be able to cry out: How long, my son? I'll wait for you. I'll stay.