RETREAT IN LENT 2021 Day 1, Ash Wednesday, 17 February

 

RETREAT IN LENT 2021

Day 1, Ash Wednesday, 17 February

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 opens the season of Lent. It recalls the three traditional ways we can live this season:

·        helping others especially the poor, ‘your left hand must not know what your right is doing’

·        prayer, ‘go to your private room and pray to your Father who is in that secret place’

·        fast, ‘so that no one will know what you are doing’

The emphasis is on intimacy, secrecy and sincerity. This is a matter between you and God. You are cut off from the gaze of the world. What you do is the real ‘you’. There can be no pretense, no show. You are alone, as if you were on your own in a prison cell! Your relationship is now stripped down, laid bare. ‘Simon Peter, do you love me?’ Jesus wants the truth. The question is repeated a second time. And a third time. Peter is distraught; ‘Lord, you know everything, you know I love you’ (John 21:17).

Peter helps us. There are other instances in the gospel where he is shaken. When he sees the catch of fish, he is shocked and cries, ‘leave me, Lord, this is too much’ (Luke 5:8). Again, he reacts to Jesus’ words that he would ‘suffer grievously’ in Jerusalem in horror, ‘No, no! Let that not happen to you!’ And Jesus says to him sharply, ‘Get out of my way; you are an obstacle in my path’ (Matt 16:23). And when Peter’s courage collapses completely and he denies ever knowing him, Jesus turns and looks on him with love and understanding (Luke 22:61).

So, on this first day I can try to be honest with myself. I can try to get behind all the outward show I put on when I am with others. We wear masks on these Covid days but, in another way, we are always wearing a mask, always hiding our true self from others – and even from ourselves.

So I desire to know myself as I am known by God and come before him with truth and honesty. 

-o0o-

 

People like receiving ashes. I wonder why? The practice surely comes from the book of Genesis (3:19): ‘you are dust and to dust you will return.’ One day, I will be a handful of dust!