During the Jubilee, Lent begins

Here is the text of the reflection I shared with those who came to celebrate the Mass for Ash Wednesday with us tonight, and to begin the annual liturgical season of Lent.  Some of these reflections are borrowed from the reflection that was shared by Pope Francis at today's General Audience in Rome, and some were inspired by the reflection he sent to the youth of Pompeii who are being invited to participate in an outreach project called KeepLent.

Proclaim the gospel with joy

Today, we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the first day of the liturgical season of Lent.  In a few moments, we will mark our bodies by tracing the cross, the sign of Christ’s victory on our foreheads with ashes, the remains of the palms with which we once joyfully sang praises to the Lord.  During the Jubilee Year of Mercy, this is one of the moments at which we are wise to pause, to reflect and to grasp the deeper meaning of actions that may appear at first to be simple or symbolic, for these actions are deeply significant and filled with meaning.

The concept of Jubilee is something truly ancient.  It is spoken of in the Book of Leviticus, and so has existed from the very beginning of the written history of the Jewish people.  Every fifty years, on the Day of Atonement, when the mercy of the Lord would be invoked over all the people, the sound of a ram’s horn would announce a great event of liberation.  In fact, we read in the book of Leviticus: The fiftieth year you will declare holy and proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants.  It will be for you a jubilee; every one of you will return property to its rightful owner and slaves to their families ... In this year of jubilee, each of you will return to your own property (Lv 25:10, 13).  According to these directives, if someone was forced to sell his land or his house, during the jubilee he could have it returned to him; and if someone had contracted a debt and found it impossible to pay off that debt, perhaps he would place himself at the service of the debtor, but during a Jubilee, he could regain his freedom, return to his family and have all his lost property restored to him.

In the practice of Christianity, Lent provides us with an annual time for celebrating the Jubilee, especially the forgiveness of our God, but if we rejoice in God’s goodness to us, we too must always strive to be merciful to others.  The prophet Joel invites us today to return to the Lord with all our hearts, fasting as a gesture of reparation for our sins and willing to rend our hearts (Joel 2:12).  Each one of us knows the depth of our imperfection: the occasions when despite our own desire to be forgiving, we may still hold grudges; the ways in which, despite our best intentions, we have not lived up to the promises we once made to be faithful to the conversation that is called prayer; or perhaps the occasions when we have closed our eyes to the needs of others, choosing to focus on our own perceived needs.  Each of these situations, and many others like them, are temptations for us to look inward, to be concerned with our own good.

Instead, the wisdom of our faith challenges us to always remember that we are brothers and sisters, travelling a common road.  In fact, we are all ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor 5:20), which means that we must first be aware of his presence within us.  Christ is present in the hearts of all his children, and every day of our lives he finds ways to speak and act through us, to reach out to those in need and to reassure them of his presence in their lives.

If we want to live this Lent well, all we need to do is listen to the words spoken in today’s gospel passage: Beware of practising your piety before people in order to be seen by them (Mt 6:1) … Whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet … your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Mt 6:2-4). When we do something good, sometimes we want people to appreciate us, to reward us, but this is human glory, a false reward because it is based on what others think about us.

Jesus calls us to do good simply because it is good.  He asks us to always be aware of the gaze of our heavenly Father, and to know that we live in communion with Him, not according to the judgments of others.  To live in the presence of the Father is a much deeper joy than any worldly glory.  Our attitude during Lent should therefore be to live in secret, where the Father sees us, loves us, waits for us.  Sure, external things are also important, but we should always choose to live in God's presence.