Further Up/Further In

A reading from the Prophet Joel

“Yet even now,” says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil. Who knows whether he will not turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, a cereal offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare thy people, O Lord, and make not thy heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. 

Ash Wednesday is always a really interesting time of the year for me. For some, it really means nothing different then any other day, but for others it is a time of repentance. Above I posted the Old Testament reading from this morning’s Mass. What does it mean to be repentant? What does it truly mean to “rend your hearts” and to “return” with fasting, weeping, and mourning? “Repent” is usually a dirty word in our context; people don’t like to hear it and usually get very uncomfortable when they are told to do it. I believe that we often forget that one of the first words of King Jesus in the Gospel of St. Mark is to “repent!”

So, on Ash Wednesday, a time of repentance and of prayer, what can be said about the nature of repentance? 

First off, there is personal repentance. We all have our sins, those in public and those in private; in what ways can we learn to “rend our hearts” when it comes to these sins. To the friend we are cold to; to the homeless man we pay no notice to; to the loved ones and family members we take advantage of we must repent. For far to long I feel that sin has been an issue of personal purity and not how our sins have harmed others. It is our own responsibility to look in at our own hearts and listen as the Holy Spirit points out and brings to light our sins and to repent of them and then to go to those that we have wronged and repent to them.

Secondly, there is the issue of corporate repentance. We as society have sinned. We as society are to be held responsible for the sins we commit together. To the burnouts, the broken, the broke, the drug addicts, the divorced, the HIV positive, the herpes-ridden, the outcasts that have been created by the church, and the outcasts of our society that have been created by us. To the pregnant too many times, and the pregnant at the wrong time. To the over-employed, the underemployed, the unemployable, and the unemployed. To the swindled, the shoved aside, the left aside. To the replaced, the incompetent, and the stupid. To the bigoted, the murderers, the child molesters, the brutals, the drug lords, the terrorists, the perverted, the raging alcoholics, over consumers, the incredibly ugly, the dumb, the ignorant, the starving, and the filthy rich. To these people we must repent corporately for all the times that we do not live out the love of Christ to them. 

As we go into the Lenten season, what should you repent of? 

As a side note, one of the primary things I am giving up for Lent is beef. I know my Vegan friends and reader will be excited to see my attempts at a more Vegan lifestyle.