Daily Catholic Lectio
Wed, 14 February 2024
Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:12-18. 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2. Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Return – Reconcile – Restore
Wearing the ashes on our foreheads, we enter the season of Lent today.
(1) What is the meaning of Lent?
(a) Lent is primarily a part of time, liturgical time, or season. This is not the chronological or diary time, which begins on February 14 and ends on March 31, 2024. This is an impactful or transformative block of time.
(b) Lent is the preparatory space for the celebration of the Passover of the Lord from death to life, the Easter.
(c) Lent is the opportunity that makes us see the other side of life. We let go of eating and embrace hunger; let go of lust and embrace continence; let go of accumulating and embrace giving; let go of our hard-heartedness and embrace God.
(2) Understanding the Readings of the Day
The first reading says, ‘one who is inside shall come out,’ and the gospel reading says, ‘one who is outside shall go in.’ These two readings underscore the two directions or movements of the Lent. Hence, Lent is not a time for lamentation but a time for orientation; not a time for ruminating sin but a time for regulating our lives; and not a part-time of life, but that which makes a full-time impact.
Our journeys in life could be divided into two categories: ‘journeys when we change paths,’ and ‘journeys when we deviate from paths.’ A change of path is welcome, but deviation from the path is a nuisance. The ashes that we wear today on our foreheads are, in fact, palms in different forms. The palm leaves that we carried on Palm Sunday are now transformed into ashes. The palms have reached their final destination. These ashes can never become palms again.
In the first reading, Prophet Joel invites his contemporaries to ‘come out from their homes’ – physical homes and homes of their hearts. He exhorts them to tear their hearts apart. Tearing of the heart underscores that the heart is not hard.
In the gospel reading, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, directs the steps of the disciples towards the inner chamber of life. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving must be celebrated in the inner chamber of the disciple’s heart.
The first reading invites us to ‘Return’ (to God), the second reading invites us to Reconcile (with God and each other), and the gospel reading invites us, the disciples to Restore, to restore life in God, within us, and with others.
(3) The disposition for the Lent
(a) Let us return to God. This will be the experience of our homecoming. Constantly let us sit in the presence of the Lord – in the church, chapel, or all alone at home.
(b) Let us reconcile. First, with ourselves. Let us accept ourselves as we are, with our limitations and shortcomings. Secondly, let us reconcile with others, especially those with whom we have had friction.
(c) Let us restore our lives to a zero point and begin everything new, as we did on New Year’s Day. Ash Wednesday is a sort of spiritual New Year’s Day.
(4) Challenges of Ash Wednesday
(a) Carpe diem (seize the day). Saint Paul says in the second reading of the day, ‘embrace this moment – now and here.’
(b) From external signs to internal change. The external signs that mark our austerity will be profound reminders for us. They shall not replace the imperative of making changes internally.
(c) From hard-heartedness to mercy. Let us live our lives with a bit more of mercy, compassion, and empathy.
Wishes for a graceful season of Lent.
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
Missionary of Mercy
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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