It's A Different Lenten Season This Year!

  Matthew 6:16-18

   “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to others to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.

 

This reading was part of the Gospel for Ash Wednesday. But this year it was different. Because of the pandemic I was not ministering at the altar, but rather was doing a different ministry, that of live streaming the Mass for those in our parish who were not able to be there in person.

I am used to seeing the church overflowing with people on this first day of Lent. It is something about coming to Mass to receive ashes in the sign of the cross on ones’ forehead and wearing them all day that is a humbling experience.

But listening to Fr. Jim Gannon OFM’s homily really brought it into perspective for this year. He caught my attention when he said “This year we are finally doing what the Gospel is asking us to do, not to put dirt on our foreheads!” 

And you know he was right. Jesus tells us “when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to others to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden.”

He went on to say how other years, when we received ashes, we came forward with our heads held high to receive them This year we received them with our heads bowed. Not in gloom and doom but humbly before the Lord, as receiving them in new life.

This year we need to do things differently. We need to show others who we are, not by a smudge of dirt on our foreheads but by our actions.

Others did not see the ashes on us this year, as Father Jim says so that others may say “Oh you must be Christian or you must be Catholic because you have ashes on your forehead.”

This year we need to make this Lenten season a more active one. The pandemic has had us hiding behind a mask, no one can see if we have a happy face or a frown. We need to go out of our way to show who we really are by our actions of kindness.

We have a short forty days to bring ourselves closer to our God and this year the devil seems to be doing his best to pull us away.

Let’s make this Lent more about life with Christ and less about death in this world. Let others see Christ in us and we see Christ in others as we look forward to a glorious Easter to come.