Keeping God at the centre and an outward gaze

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Is 58: 1-9; Mt 9:14-15

I am sure that we have all started Lent with a lot of enthusiasm and with a desire to live it the best way that we can so that it can really be a meaningful 40 days. We know however that 40 days is not a short period of time and we know that we are going to pass through moments when we get discouraged, when we start rethinking the little resolutions that we did to pray more, to be a bit more generous, and perhaps even to fast or to make any other sacrifice.

Therefore I would like to share with you some reflections inspired by today's reading about what can help us in our Lenten journey.

First, keeping God at the centre of Lent. Sometimes - a bit like the Pharisees in today's gospel -  we are so enthusiastic about our sacrifices that we might sometimes forget why exactly are we doing these acts of penance. We have to continue to remind ourselves that the aim of our sacrifices is God. Our sacrifices, our prayer and our generosity are responses to God's action working within us. They are not something that we do to gain merit or to be more at peace with ourselves and with others. If we do manage to keep our Lenten resolutions they are the result not of our strength, but of our dependence on God. And therefore every time that we fail to honour our little Lenten resolutions, know that we have lost sight o f God and that we have to start all over again, with the grace of God's love.

Secondly, while keeping God at the centre, we must keep an outward gaze. Our actions bear fruit only when they are done for others. In itself fasting is useless. However I can turn it into something meaningful by using it to be in solidarity with so many people around the world who lack even the mere basics. Our little sacrifices, both of things that we refrain from doing, such as fasting from food or sweets or from our favourite TV programme or social media, as well as the sacrifices that we do by doing something extra, for example praying more, or trying to be more generous with others with our time in the end must always result in a change of attitude, a change in the way we relate with others, in the way that we look at others.

Isaiah has this to say about fasting:

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.

It would really be a pity to have wasted these forty days of Lent, when they might have been a time of abundant grace! So let us ask God to help us keep Him at the centre of this season of penance and repentance while making us always more attentive to the needs of our brothers and sisters.