THE SECRET WORK AND REMUNERATION

ASH WEDNESDAY  

Joel 2:12-18; Ps 51:3-6,12-14,17; 2 Cor 5:20-6:2; Mt 6:1-6,16-18

The Father sees All Done in Secret

The celebration of Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the holy season of Lent. It is a holy season for the Church, when we intensify our penitential practices which characterise the Christian life. Our life as Christians is characterised by a continuous repentance from our sins and recommitment to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance from sin marks the very beginning of Christianity or the following of Jesus Christ. The Gospels confirm this by starting the public ministry of Jesus Christ with his baptism at the river Jordan by John the Baptist. Though he had committed no sin, he nevertheless submitted himself to the ritual of baptism to emphasize its importance for us. By our baptism, we accepted to let our sinful life and lifestyle fall to the ground and die, which the baptismal ritual shows, for us to start a new spiritual life of commitment to the word of God. The principle of our baptism is the acknowledgement of the sins we have committed against God and readiness to convert to God. The grace of conversion is not from us, but from God through his Son, Jesus Christ. The belief that the Son of Man is the Eternal Word who assumed our human nature for our salvation gender a new beginning within us.

Because his appearance in human nature gendered life, truth, and grace for us and within us, we are offspring of his sacrificial mission among us. The Church, following the Old Testament, and understanding that repentance from sins is the basic and characteristic activity of all who are called to communion with God, as marked by our rebirth of water and Spirit, set out a season for us to renew our spiritual life and recommit ourselves to our heavenly journey under the Holy Spirit. God gives us the necessary features of our penitential rite. “‘Now, now—it is the Lord who speaks—come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.’” The prophet Joel describes what we should do: “Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn, turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, and ready to relent.” The need for regular and seasonal repentance cannot be overemphasized, given the nature of our fallen nature and life on earth. Repentance spiritualises our Christian life and makes it heavenward again. The refocus of our attention on our nothingness and sinfulness makes us become more receptive to the grace and presence of God within and around us.

The penitential exercise is both individual and collective, because our life as Christians is a sharing in the life of Christ; a gradual turning away from God by each of us leads to the collective turning away of the body of Christ from his Gospel. Thus, Joel invites all: “Sound the trumpet in Zion! Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, call the people together, summon the community, assemble the elders, gather the children, even the enfants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his bedroom and the bride her alcove. Between vestibule and altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, lament. Let them say, ‘Spare your people, Lord! Do not make your heritage a thing of shame, a byword for the nations.” But the effectiveness of the collective exercise rests on the sincerity of each of us in turning away from our sinful ways. This involves acknowledgement (and confession) of our sins, as the psalmist declares for us. “Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness. In your compassion blot out my offence. O wash me more and more from my guilt and cleanse me from sins. My offences truly I know them; my sin is always before me. Against you, you alone, have sinned; what is evil in your sight I have done.” This acknowledgement of sin is the foundation of the life of Jesus Christ within us.

By this individual and collective acknowledgement and confession of our sins, we reunite with the Son of Man, in his Spirit and mission. He assumed our nature and willingly accepted the awareness and guilt of our sins; and confessed them to the Father; thereby sacrificing himself to redeem us from the effects of our sins. Thus, Saint Paul writes: “For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.” He did not repudiate us in our sinfulness but accepted us and our sinful condition. We ought to show gratitude to the sacrifice he made for us by truly owning our sins and becoming one in Spirit with him through our sincere repentance and eagerness to do the will of the Father. Thus, the individual devotion and sincerity of our conversion and penitence drive the effectiveness of our collective Lenten exercise. The words of our Lord testify to the essential role of individual exercises, which are basically summed up by: arms giving, prayer, and fasting. These three must be done to please the Father alone, from whom we receive the desired spiritual rebirth. “Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice; by doing this, you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven.” Thus, the giving of arms, our prayers, our fasting or mortifications, must be done in secret and before the Father alone, who sees everything done in secret; “and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.” The mindset that drives the tempo of these spiritual exercises is the awareness of our sinfulness.

Let us pray: Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.