14 February 2018
Ash Wednesday
“Even now, return to me with your whole heart!” (Joel 2:12)
In the season of Advent, we celebrate the one who is ever with us, and yet whose coming we can always experience more and more deeply. Now as we begin Lent, we remember again that the Lord is with us. Yet with St. Augustine we may truthfully confess, “You were with me Lord, but I was not with you!” (Conf. X.22) And as we acknowledge that our sins bind our freedom and impede us from being present to God who is always present to us, we can meditate on God’s beautiful and unending cry to us: Return to me! How ardently the Lord desires that we be present to Him, that we love Him in mind, heart and deed! He knows that we will find the fullness of life and joy only in finding them in Him. So the Lord calls us not to hold back. He does not want our hearts to be half-satisfied because we still hold onto harmful thoughts, hurtful words, or destructive actions. “Return to me with your whole heart!” Let us attend to the cry of our God! Let us continue to take the honest look at ourselves that the readings this week have invited us to take, and admit to the Lord what is holding us back, what still impedes our return. He awaits us with open arms, let us this Lent let Him break the shackles which keep our hands from fully embracing Him.