Ash Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024

Ash Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024

 As we begin Lent with the thought of sacrificing ourselves through emptying our needs.

It will be no different this year than others of the past.  We hurry to make a resolute decision to find the one sacrifice we can do without no matter its painful desire to suffer through our needs of its addiction.  Staying away from movie theaters, passing the candy stores as our taste buds scream out, of lets try this year to stop smoking; that will be a real effort.

“What can I do with you, Ephraim?  What can I do with you Judah?  Your piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away.  For this reason I smote them through the prophets, I slew them by the words of my mouth; For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts.”  (Hos 6: 4 - 6).  

We must go back to the beginning of mercy that became real as Christ took on humanity at the Incarnation of his divinity by taking on humanity and becoming the God-Man of history.  “Go and learn the meaning of the word, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  “ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”  (Mt 9; 13).  The response might be as one reads this is “I am a sinner so I must give something back.”  Giving back for our forgiveness is essential but, through finding even one person who is in need of your own forgiveness, be it a neighbor of that relative with whom there is a rampart of jealousy or revenge deep within your heart.  The words of thoughts of not forgetting the wall that separates the two of you  will do more to eliminate the reason that Lent presents than going beyond a simplistic idea of excluding movies, candy, and even a drug-related addiction.  

Each of us must look deep within our sub-consciousness to find that one person with whom we may tolerate for the sake of appearances.  Of all the many attractions of sin that confront us, the sin of unforgiveness is the most deadly.  It is pride covered over by a willingness to ostracize those closest to us for no other reason than saying, “I am better than you and don’t forget it.”  I personally watched another person who was hurt for some personal reason, and because of a bitter and vengeful attitude  died in their hatred of an unforgiving heart.   

Ash Wednesday should not be a day of scurrying about to renew the insidious items from our simple needs but, to search those with whom we wake each day finding fault with another who really shouldn’t become a life-long adversary that will waste away within yourself.

There may not be too many people that this scenario doesn’t have a meaning within their daily attitude.  How often Satan can laugh at our sacrificing needless items while all the while there is one person who silently is calling for forgiveness, but we put that need on a shelf that we usually forget its location.  

Emptying our needs for Ash Wednesday can begin with an embrace to that one with whom we should love with all of our heart.  Forgiveness does more than giving up candy.  

Ralph B. Hathaway