Joel 2:12-18 / 2 Cor 5:20 - 6:2 / Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Today the Church begins the solemn season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. On this day the Church also proclaims an obligatory fast and abstinence.
It is not just today but even for the whole season of Lent, we are called to deepen our spiritual life with penance and repentance.
Concretely and practically speaking, the gospel gives the three forms of spiritual exercises - prayer, fasting and alms-giving - and the purpose of doing it is clearly stated by Jesus.
But why such emphasis on penance and repentance with prayer and fasting and alms-giving?
We may even candidly quip : Why so serious? After all it's Lent, again.
Maybe that is the problem. We have lost the seriousness of our faith. We have become soft and complacent. We have become lax with ourselves and given way to temptation and sin.
How long more are we going to stop walking around in circles and heed the call of the Lord in the 1st reading : Come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.
The crisis in the context of the 1st reading is the great locust plague and the devastating drought.
But that was just a sign of the impending threat of the enemy that will come upon them to destroy and annihilate.
So the penance and repentance, the fasting and prayer and alms-giving is to wake us up from our stupor and to realize the danger of evil in our midst.
Yes it is time to break our hardened hearts and to soften it as we cry out : Spare your people, Lord.
May the Lord have pity on us and save us, and may ashes we receive be a sign of our repentance.