We are dust, and unto dust we shall return.* So we are reminded today on Ash Wednesday, at Mass when we step forward and each one of us has a cross of ashes made on his or her forehead.
And so begins Lent, our more intense period of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, over the course of about the next six weeks, between now and Easter Sunday. Today at Mass the priest noted that in Lent, we are not only entering into a practice of more frequent penance in atonement for our sins. During Lent, on Good Friday, we especially remember our Lord Jesus dying for us on the Cross to save us from our sins. To contrast with our Lenten penance, today the priest pointed out that we are also anticipating the triumph of our Lord Jesus over death through His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
As we enter this period of intensified prayer during Lent, we may examine how we approach prayer. As Pope Francis has inquired of us, in our prayer do we only ask God for things and thank God for things? If we are focused on what we want, we are likely to experience difficulty in receiving what God wants to give us. If we are preoccupied with what we want, we are less likely to be adoring and praising God and always rejoicing** out of gratitude for whatever God gives us. Yet if we are excited about whatever God has in store for us, we practice another approach.
I heard about such a different conception of prayer yesterday when I drove with someone else to pick up some items which were being donated to the Catholic Worker House. As we traveled to, and later back from, our donor's home, my passenger was sharing with me how she has come to view prayer. She described that when she is sitting down to read the Bible, she feels like she is receiving a gift. It seems to her like she is opening a present, not knowing what is inside. She suggested that when you aspire to truly receive God's Word into your heart, you do not know what God is about to give you: you do not know how God is about to transform you, if you have truly opened your heart to God. You are not aware what specific spiritual blessings you are about to receive.
Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, explained, "Our God does not want to know what we want, but wants us rather to exercise our desire through our prayers, so that we may be able to receive what He is preparing to give us." How can we prepare ourselves to receive what God wants to give us? As Jesus tells us in today's Gospel reading, "When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret."*** By sitting motionless in silent solitude, we still and quiet ourselves alone, having removed ourselves from distractions. We are well-positioned to listen to what God wants to say to us. We are situated to receive what God wants to give to us.
We receive what God gives us when we let go of our own desires. We give up our desires also through fasting. We tend to conceptualize fasting as giving something up. Often we give up certain food during Lent, though sometimes people fast from social media during Lent. Someone can fast from anything. We are to fast from all things which separate us from God. When we fast, really we are going beyond giving something up and are doing more than trying to live in greater simplicity. When we fast, we tell God that we are willing to, and are trying to, subordinate our desires to His will. As we fast, we show God that we seek to be submissive to His will, and thus obediently open our hearts to what He wants to give us.
When we give something up, we receive something back. When we die to ourselves, when we die to our desires, when we set fire to our desires and aim to reduce our desires to a pile of ashes, we try to humble ourselves. God gives grace to the humble.****
When we give up what we have out of love of our neighbor, we humble ourselves for the sake of love. So it is with almsgiving. When we give to those who are needy, we step out of our comfort zone to help others in their discomfort. When we give out of our comfort, we are able to comfort the afflicted. Saint Basil of Caesarea has said that the extra coat which is hanging unused in our closet belongs to the poor shivering impoverished person who has no coat. Out of our comfortable wealth of unused property, we can comfort people who do not have what we have. We can easily give them what they need but we do not need since we have more than we need.
We can give away what we have to help others. We can give up to God what we have. We can give up, meaning that we can surrender. We can give up ourselves to God. We can surrender ourselves to the will of God. In return we can receive from God the gift of simplicity. We can receive back from God the amazing gift of total dependence on Him. Realizing that we are to turn to God for all we need, then we are in a position to receive from God the gift of awareness of who we truly are.
* Genesis 3:19
** 1 Thessalonians 5:16
*** Matthew 6:6
**** 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6
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