Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:12-18 | Psalm 50(51):3-6,12-14,17 | 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 | Matthew 6:1-6,16-18
Today, we begin our Lenten fast from all things that we would enjoy to excess.
Today, we turn our thoughts especially to who we are called to be: faithful followers of Christ.
But today, we also continue with our daily lives, not calling attention to our abstinence from that which distracts us, and which draws us away from the quiet inward voice that calls us to holiness.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
I quite enjoy Lent now, not so much from the physical weight that I’ll be fasting away each day, but especially from the things I’d have to focus on, to take my mind away from my gnawing hunger:
- My daily work, which has suffered somewhat from the perennial distraction of good food
- My daily exercise, ramped up to counter my hungry body’s urge to cannibalise my muscles
- My daily resistance to temptation, which my oldest and dearest friend has promised to continue supplying in moderation (the same one who poked another Catholic publicly with “lobster is abstinence?”)
- My daily reflection, which will likely center on “what have I, now that I have not?”
All this, while obeying Jesus’ command to “put oil on your head and wash your face, so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret” (Matthew 6:16-17).
OK, maybe not the “oil on head” bit.
Amen.