Lenten Reflections

We are now a week and a half into the Lenten season and I just wanted to take a few brief moments to reflect upon its significance. Although my family and the church I grew up in never celebrated Lent, every year I am finding it increasingly vital to my understanding of who Christ is. This year is no exception. For those unfamiliar with Lent, it is a time aside for prayer, fasting, abstinence and reflection, all in anticipation of the joyous celebration of Easter. This Ash Wednesday I saw the importance and meaning of the ashes in a new way.
"...for dust you are and to dust you will return." ~Genesis 3:19
Although the ashes symbolize atonement and contrition, they are also a reminder that God is gracious and merciful to those who call on Him with repentant hearts. His divine mercy is of utmost importance during the season of Lent, and the Church calls on us to seek that mercy during the entire Lenten season with reflection, prayer and penance.
"Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity." ~Joel 2:13
The liturgical use of ashes developed in the Old Testament times. Ashes symbolized mourning, mortality and penance. Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of King Ahasuerus to kill all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire (Esther 4:1). Job repented in sackcloth and ashes (Job 42:6). In relationship to the prophesy of the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem, Daniel wrote, "So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3).
The Church adapted the use of ashes to mark the beginning of the season of Lent, when we remember our mortality and mourn for our sins. In today's liturgy for Ash Wednesday, the ashes used are made from the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. As followers of Christ, we must remember the significance of the ashes we have received. We mourn for our sins. We again convert our hearts to the Lord, who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation. We abstain from certain distractions or valued pieces of our lives or commit to a specific type of discipline, all so that we lean into Christ and take the time to focus on who He is. We renew the promises made when we first received God's grace, when we died to an old life and rose to a new life with Christ. Mindful that the kingdom of this world will pass away, we strive to live the kingdom of God now and look forward to its fulfillment in heaven as we embrace the "already but not yet" of the Lenten season.
Some will say this doesn't make sense to them as they claim, "Christ already rose from dead. He's already conquered death so what's the point of putting yourself through a season of penance and mourning?" This question misses the point and chooses to ignore that faith requires a deeper reflection of the Biblical narrative and the choices we have made, both collectively in our humanity and as individuals. This question and its mentality implies an artificial understanding of God's grace misses the complexities and sorrows that fill life. Furthermore, it also misses the opportunity to understand a little bit more about the pain and sorrow that the Triune God endured through the Biblical narrative and throughout modern history as we have turned our backs on God over and over again. In past seasons of Lenten I have tasted that sorrow and become more aware of the sorrow my decisions have put upon the One that longs to know me most.
Embracing the season of Lent is not a self-righteous journey; again this misses the whole point. We participate out of our response to know God and to enter into our humanity while also moving away from our humanity through selfless sacrifice.
May this Lenten season bring you hope as you anticipate the coming of Christ.