Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18 (Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2008)

Ash Wednesday is here and we begin our traditional 40 days of prayer, fasting, almsgiving and penance before Easter. It is a time that most Christians make decisions on the things they will give up through out the time of lent. Several of my friends have told me the wonderful things they will do during this season of lent. One says she will give up chocolate. Another will fast from food and water from morning till noon; my other friend’s resolution is to give up drinking alcohol throughout this time of lent. During my homily at the High school in which I am the chaplain, I invited the Seniors to help us in making resolutions for this time of Lent. They came up with very good religious practices we all as a school should practice during this season. Their resolutions were drawn from Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18, the gospel that was used for the Mass. With my little help, they were able to come up with the following things:

Ø Prayer: Say a prayer at the beginning and end of every class. The intention of the prayer is that God keeps us all in the school as one family.

Ø Fasting: Give up gossiping. Anyone who has been through or works in a high school, knows that gossiping is one of the greatest problem in a high school, most especially if it is a school with both boys and girls. If you have no experience of the problem of gossiping in a high school, you may want to consider watching the movie “Mean Girls.” The kids “cleverly” suggested that in place of gossiping, we should spread good rumors. For every gossip, a quarter has to be given towards helping the poor.

Ø Almsgiving: They indicated that this has to be sacrificial. While they encouraged us all to give, they said that we should give not from our abundance, but from the little we have. The fact that the gift has to be painful was emphasized. Their position was that, give until it hurts.

Ø Penance: There was no doubt in their minds that we are all sinners and Christ has given us the beautiful gift of the sacrament of reconciliation (popularly known as “confession.” Their decision was that the religion teachers should use one class period of the religion class for the sacrament of reconciliation and every student should attend.

I felt nothing less than the Holy Spirit revealing all these things to them. The beauty of this is that, they are not only looking at the 40 days of Lent, but they are looking beyond Lent, they want to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the beauty because they are not only looking at placing heavy burdens upon themselves, but they are looking towards responding to Jesus’ invitation to come and be loved. We need to be very careful how we place burdens upon ourselves during this 40 days because that undercuts the real purpose of Jesus’ suffering and death, which is liberative. It is not so much what you want to do during these 40 days but how you want to respond to Jesus. There is an invitation being extended to you by Jesus – an invitation to come and be loved; an invitation to come and be forgiven, an invitation to come and be saved.

The invitation to come and be loved is the very purpose of the incarnation of Jesus which we celebrated only a few weeks ago – during the season of Christmas. John 3: 16 tells us that God loved the world that he gave his only Son. Jesus Christ in the New Testament witnessed this love and he says to us, no greater love has a man for his friend than to lay down his life for him. That is what he did. In Isaiah 1:18, we get this invitation from God to come and be forgiven. He says, “Come, let us reason together, though your sins are as read as scarlet, I shall make them as white as snow.” At Easter when Jesus resurrects, we celebrate the invitation to be saved. Easter is the culmination of this triple invitatory mystery.

We need to look at Lent not only as a time in which we live an austere life but a time that prepares us to respond to the invitation extended to us by Jesus. If it is all about the 40 days, what happens on the 41st day? Will you give up your daily six pack of beer and drink twelve pack on the 41st day? Will you return to your daily six pack? If you do, where is the change? Again, the purpose is not to give up. The purpose is to try to respond to the invitation to a personal relationship with Jesus. It is in the process of trying to respond to Jesus that you may find that you need to give up certain things: you may find that perhaps your habit of drinking six cans of beer every day cannot be reconciled with your Christian calling? You may discover in the process that you have not been financially generous with the Church or the less privileged? You may come to the realization that you are eating too much, that is the reason you are overweight, and if you are overweight, you are not taking good care of your body and this is irreconcilable with your Christian vocation – your body being the temple of the Holy Spirit? This process is like an examination of conscience. You may spend the whole season of Lent doing this and not being ready to respond to Jesus. Perhaps, it may be on the 35th day that you are ready to respond to Jesus’ invitation. At that point, you may see that you need to give up your daily six pack of beer. You don’t do it only for the remaining five days of Lent, but from that point onwards, this becomes part of your Christian life.

As we enter into this season, let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, who always responded to Jesus to give us the graces we need to accept this invitation that has been extended to us. Let us open the doors of our lives for him, so that he will come in and share our meals side by side with us. (Revelations 3: 20)