Joel 2:12-18 / 1 Cor 5:20 – 6:2 / Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
During the season of Lent, the emphasis is on penance, and rightly so.
Today is Ash Wednesday, and with it the season of Lent begins.
Today is also a day of obligatory fasting and abstinence, but a dispensation is given because of the festive season.
The gospel gives a spiritual direction for the season of Lent.
Jesus spells out three spiritual disciplines that will help us to turn away from sin, and turn back to God.
The act of alms-giving addresses our sense of security.
To have money is to have a sense of security.
To share it or to give it away makes us uncomfortable and makes us feel needy.
But in doing so, we can also see how much we trust and depend on God.
The need for food is a basic human need.
In the act of fasting, we also reflect on our need for God, and to see that we need God over and above everything else.
To pray is to acknowledge that God is our Creator, and we are mere creatures.
By God’s love, we came into existence.
But one day our life will come to an end.
The ashes that will be marked on our foreheads remind us of our mortality and frailty.
We are created beings, but the sinful tendency in us makes us think that we are the Creator.
May the season of Lent, with the spiritual disciplines of alms-giving, fasting and prayer help us to turn away from our sinful tendencies.
To turn away from sin is to turn back to God and to be loved by Him.
May the ashes on our foreheads be a reminder of our human mortality and frailty.
But may those ashes also remind us of God’s saving love for us.