Ash Wednesday 2009

Here we are again at another Lent, another Ash Wednesday. We are told in the Gospel to not wear our religion out there for everyone to see, yet ashes are put on our heads. I love the ritual both of receiving the ashes, and of going home and washing them off. Why?

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday;

So it seems that what God wants is justice from us. The same things Jesus said he wanted all along. Even in the book of Isaiah, in the days of the Law, God was making it clear I want justice, I want goodness, not your stupid sacrifices.

What would happen if we did exactly what the passage above said? Well if we set the oppressed free, we would not have third world nations to make our clothes for pennies a day. "Sheltering the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the naked -- what is this, the do-gooder wish list? We are busy people with important business to attend to. Those vagrants in the street deserve what they got. Isn't that so? Those queers get what they deserve, right? If those idiots hadn't bought homes they couldn't afford they wouldn't be in this mess, right?"

What would happen if we did exactly what the passage said? It would cause a rebellion, the loss of riches that were gotten off the backs of the oppressed. Heaven knows we may pray for that, and some of us may live it, but ...

What would happen if we did exactly what the passage said? First, we would have to trust in God absolutely to handle the entire thing. Can that happen? Can enough of us let it happen for it to spread to a world wide happening?

Let us pray unceasingly that it may be so.