Ash Wednesday—The Beginning of Lent
Thus says the Lord God, “return to me with your whole heart” (Joel 2:12). Do you feel distanced from God? Feel you need to see more of God? Do you need peace? Are you struggling with habitual sins which you do not seem to break off with? Do you feel as if you go back and forth, unstable in your walk with God? Does your life seem hollow, empty, and lonely? Do you feel unloved by everyone around you? Does it look like there is a cloud of darkness over your life? Are you always struggling to meet up with your responsibilities? Are you always exhausted?
Help
Well, help is here. The help is Jesus Christ. He comes with mercy, favor, healing, deliverance, and total salvation. But Jesus will not force His blessings upon us which is why the prophets are calling us to return to the Lord. God is not only a Person. He is a Place—the Place of refuge, peace, righteousness, mercy, healing, light, accomplishments, prosperity, salvation, etc.
The prophetic voices in the readings of today are calling and begging us to return to the Lord. Prophet Joel says, “Return to the Lord with your whole heart.” And St Paul writes, “I appeal to you, be reconciled to God.” The Lord is speaking to His children through these prophetic voices. And the Church is charting the course through this Lent. We are being offered another beautiful opportunity to return to God through daily thorough examination of conscience, daily prayers, intentional acts of charity, and to undertake prayerful sacrifices to help disconnect us from godlessness. We receive ashes on our foreheads as a reminder that nothing in this life is worth our time if it does not advance the purpose of God for our lives. The Church also offers us the sacramental life as a way to keep us within God.
Progress?
Here and there we run off on our own to do our own thing. But then with the passing of time we realize we have been making little or no progress. Remember the story of the prodigal son? He felt he was of age to be “on his own.” The father said to his older son, “You are here with me always and everything that I have is yours” (Luke 15:31). Everything is in the Father. We hardly know the way to the Father without Jesus, the fulfillment of all prophecies. The Lord Jesus is inviting us to discover Him anew everyday but most especially in these 40 days of our Lenten journey. Come let us make a profitable journey with Jesus, accompanying Him in His desert experience with our own desert experiences in order that He will raise us up as He comes forth on Easter Sunday.
Thankyou. Cosmo
You are welcome, Cosmo. Have a blessed Lent!