EMBRACING LOVE
“Return to me with your whole heart.” – Joel 2:12
Like pandemic living, receiving ashes today can be a schooling about what is essential.
The black cross on my forehead reminds me that I cannot save myself. Moreover, I don’t have to. Someone else already has. He who “who did not know sin” has taken on all my sins, all of our sins (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus enlightens our darkness, walks with us, empowering us to greater life and freedom.
The Lenten season offers a return to the bedrock truth of our faith: God’s unconditional love that Jesus revealed. God’s love for us does not depend on our looks, intelligence, performance, success, popularity, or faithfulness. God does not love us more if we make good choices, get better, or even come back to God. Yet, the more we embrace ourselves as loved without condition, the more we become transformed and learn to love likewise.
Whether we “give up” anything this Lent, we are invited to make greater space in our hearts and lives so that the unconditional love of God can take greater root and bear lasting fruit. The disciplines of fasting (from what does not give life or promote justice), almsgiving (sharing our time, care, and resources), and prayer (trust in God) provide opportunities to realize more deeply God’s love for us and to love as we are loved.
Today, we are called to return to this essential reality of our faith: to acknowledge our attachments to unhealthy loving and allow God’s merciful love to transform us.
How will you respond to this invitation to embrace God’s love more fully?