Nope this is not about cricket but more than a game that we played. For today is Ash Wednesday the beginning of Lent. This is the time to return to Yahweh- a God full of compassion and love. Why a return? Unlike any parts of the year, the whole of Christendom for the next forty days will be prepared to receive the promise of a Messiah. It is the time to return and focus on our true self as we receive the gift of our salvation. How do we do this? Through the ancient tradition of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. As St Peter Chrysologus, a fifth century bishop, tells us that fasting is the soul of prayer and that mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Thus if we pray fast; if we fast show mercy. If we want our petitions to be heard, heed the petition of others. There is an old Japanese proverb that says: The fragrance of a flower remain in the hands that gives them away as a gift. It is time to be invisible. Time to be still and know that God is in charge.
The tradition of the ashes which is a mixture of the burnt palm from last year’s Palm Sunday and the water of our Baptism, reminds us of the great sacrifice and our share in that suffering of the Cross. Ash Wednesday begins with this Remember… that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Apart from reminding us of our own mortality, it reminds us time and time again that we need to stir the dust that man’s inhumanity to man might be dispelled from this world. By the Cross marked on our forehead, it reminds us that by virtue of our Baptism, we have to carry this Cross and imitate Christ in spreading the Good News. This is indeed the beginning of finding Jesus among us and others, not only to those who are in community with us but more so among those who are not with us. It is time to return to Yahweh – A God full of compassion and love.
