Ash Wednesday: "Return to Me"

by the Rev. Francis T. Gignac, S.J.

he theme of Lent is announced by the first reading (Joel 2:12-18), "Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart."

The prophet calls for fasting, weeping and mourning because the countryside and now the city of Jerusalem are besieged by a plague of locusts. He hopes that if the people turn to Yahweh, the God of Israel, he will turn and have mercy. But he emphasizes the interior conversion God requires: "Rend your hearts, not your garments."

We no longer believe that God can be manipulated by any actions of ours, or that God's blessings should be in any way proportionate to our devotion. We do not consider an army of invading locusts a sign of the day of God's visitation, or expect the millennium to usher in a final cataclysm. The evils we see all around us remind us of our need of forgiveness, our need to strive for moral improvement.

The gospel (Matthew 6:1-6,16-18) likewise warns us not to be hypocritical in our religious observances or think that we can achieve justification on our own. This passage conveys the spirit of Jesus' teachings by showing how the classic biblical practices of almsgiving, prayer and fasting must be done with sincerity of heart, and not to win the approval of others or even of God. Like much of Jewish teaching, it advocates religious deeds done for good purposes alone.

"Now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!" Paul urges in the second reading (2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2). After describing how God has already been at work in Christ reconciling the world to himself, Paul emphasizes in words taken from the book of Isaiah (49:8) how the favorable time of universal redemption is at hand.

The liturgy of the Lenten season invites us to experience God's reconciliation more deeply within us and to reflect it in the way we live our daily lives. Not that this is something that we achieve on our own. Rather, heeding Paul's advice that righteousness comes from God through faith, we must let ourselves be transformed by God's saving power.

If during Lent we become more like Christ in his sufferings and death by living more for God and for others, we hope that we may also share his risen life more fully when Easter comes.

The Rev. Francis T. Gignac, S.J., is a professor and chairperson of the Department of Biblical Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. A photo is available.

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