IAsh Wednesday involves us in a strange practice. We come to church and ashes are traced on our heads as a reminder of our mortality. In a life which is so fragile, in a life where a disease or an accident can threaten our very existence, the ashes on our foreheads remind us how fragile is that tie that binds us to this life and to one another.
Only last Sunday, we were reminded of that fragile connection we have with this world. As we were gathering in church, as we do every Sunday, less than a mile from our church a family was destroyed when a father killed his wife and daughter, shot his son who later died in the hospital and then killed himself. Those children went to school in the building across the street from our church. We, like our neighbors around us, are overwhelmed by the weight of this tragedy. We are reminded, yet again, of the tenuous hold we have on our lives, on the fragile tie which connects us with those we love.
The ashes on our foreheads remind us that our time is short.
Act quickly to restore what is broken in your life. Act quickly for you know not the day or the hour when this life will be rolled up and cut off.
But there is a far deeper call which comes to you today. A more profound call summons you. A more intimate invitation echoes in your heart. Jesus comes to you today and invites you to draw near to him. Jesus invites you to a renewed relationship with him. Jesus shines, as a light in the darkness, welcoming you to discover anew his love for you. Jesus’ love invites you this day to pray, to fast, to give. Jesus’ love invites you to enter these 40 days of Lent, to enter into the mystery of his love, a love so strong that Jesus sacrificed his very life to enter into the promise of God that new life dawns even in the deepest darkness of the night.
As the ashes remind you of that deep darkness, look not to the darkness. Look to the light. Look to the light of Jesus’ love shining as a beacon in this dark world.
Jesus tells us today: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Discover your treasure in the light of Jesus. Follow that light as you are invited to new relationships with one another. Follow that light as you enter into the depths of Jesus’ battle with the darkness of this world to discover that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. Follow that light as Jesus invites you to follow the pattern he shows us: Surrender your alliances with the forces of evil which surround us in this world. Discover the new life of love which shines from the heart of Jesus in each of your hearts.