REFLECTING ON LENT AS AN INVITATION TO REFLECT ON "WHO I AM AND WHAT I MEAN".


ASH WEDNESDAY



1st Reading (Joel 2:12-18), 

Responsorial Psalm: 50, 

2nd Reading (2Cor 5:20–6,2): 

Gospel text (Mt 6:1-6.16-18)


Lent brings with it a certain kind of dryness; it's not so much a fight for the nostalgia of going back to that place of unrestrained excitement, but rather a need to embrace solitude—not loneliness, mind you;  it's more about being "attentive". With  Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day falling on the same day this year, people will be in church whether they feel totally at home there or not, and while many seem to struggle with which comes first, we shouldn't mock ourselves into believing that the two can't go together. 

What if Lent invites us to be more attentive. Isn't that what love commands, to be attentive to what is dear to us and what we cherish most? What if the ashes on my forehead urge me to remember the love of a friend that I have wasted, and to be converted by a sincere remembrance and encounter, to be attentive to the promise of love and friendship that I have made. To return to the "other" with a sincere heart.

The prophecy of Joel reminds us: "Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning; tear your hearts, not your clothes, and come back to the Lord your God".  The decision to "return" must be accompanied by an awareness of what to hold on to and what to let go of, and by an openness in which we acknowledge and share with God our deepest fears and twisted suspicions.

For me, attentiveness during this Lent means to distance myself from the deception that I can do enough by myself, but rather to be accompanied and attentive to the other. In the thought of Jean-Luc Marion: "It is in the encounter with the gaze of others that we are drawn out of ourselves". What greater love could there be than to be accompanied by someone who offers us love through an encounter? Is it not for the same reason that we remember the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, because in giving himself he gave us his goodness, his hope, his fidelity and his love?

I am hopeful, even though I am not sure what this year's Lent promises. Whatever emerges will be the result of a journey undertaken in the truth of who I am and what I mean.


Hemen A. Emmanuel O.S.A

Residencia Valverde Agustinos

Madrid, España.

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