Ash Wednesday Homily 2003
In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke,
immediately after his baptism,
Jesus is lead or driven into the desert by the Holy Spirit.
He goes into the desert to fast and pray.
The ancient imagination makes calls explicit,
has the person responding positively,
but then the call is tested immediately.
Once you know who you are,
that identity is challenged.
We are Christians.
That is the name that describes the identity
that comes with baptism.
This season of Lent takes us deeper into the meaning of our baptism;
deeper into the dying and rising of Jesus.
To greater understanding, if only on an intuitive level,
of the paschal mystery in our own lives.
The Gospel mentions three classical practices
fasting, praying and giving alms.
These are not mere mechanical rituals.
These practices are designed to bring us to greater self-awareness.
What happens to me when I am hungry?
What happens to my patience?
To my generosity of spirit?
What happens to my perseverance?
Emptiness of stomach is a way to learn about other kinds of emptiness.
What happens to me when I am giving alms?
When I am going to let go of extra stuff in my life?
Where are my attachments?
Am I aware of those who are in need,
of those who need my love and my care?
Again and again we are told that Jesus goes off to pray by himself
We can romanticize this,
but we pray the same psalms that Jesus did.
We may think of this as one divine being speaking to another divine being.
I don't think so.
I think it is Jesus, the beloved,
bringing his experience to God,
trying to understand the path to Jerusalem.
So when Jesus tells his disciples to pray in solitude,
he is merely telling us to do what he himself does.
These practices are not designed
to focus me ever more deeply on my self
but rather to illuminate those ways in which my self
looms large unnoticed on a daily basis.
The whole point is to be drawn more deeply
into the salvation won for us by Christ.
To be a Christian, through and through.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
March 5 , 2003
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