Ash Wednesday
Habits have a way of dulling our sensitivity. This can be to our advantage in the case of good habits, when I have done something good so many times that I am no longer sensitive to the difficulty involved, I can do the good thing almost with ease. However, in the case of vice, it is very much to our disadvantage. That action which hurts my health, my relationship, my God… if I do it over and over again, the terrible possibility is that I can become desensitized to my actions’ painful effects on others. And so, the Church gives us a season to re-sensitize. To choose new acts of sacrifice to which we are not accustomed, to take up habits that are out of the routine of the whole rest of the year, so that we can begin to feel again. The hope is that the discomfort of sacrifice makes us reflect and ask, “Where have my actions made others feel this?”
Our Lord then gives certain key understandings of the rites of penance described in the prophet Joel. The prophet calls for a trumpet to sound so as to call everyone’s attention to the need for repentance. Our Lord warns against blowing a trumpet so as to call everyone’s attention to ourselves. The prophet calls for the priests to pray in public so as to direct the prayer of everyone toward God. Our Lord calls for each of us to pray in private so as to see God’s heavenly gaze directed at each of us personally. Finally, the prophet calls for weeping, so that the people may not hide the reality of the pain which sin has caused. Our Lord calls for fasting that cuts to the heart, without a concern for superficial appearances. In Lent, we allow the Church’s public observance of the prophets’ calls to remind us again and again for forty days of the interior observances of what our Lord has taught us: remember that God sees in secret what is hidden.
During this Lent, may we take time to let acts of alms, prayer, and fasting help remove habit’s callouses so that our hearts can feel again. Let us follow Our Lord’s voice so that we can stop trying to hide from God behind our favorite masks of self-righteousness. Let us close our eyes and remember that God sees us, and let us ask Him to teach us how to see ourselves and our neighbors.