Ash Wednesday
As we celebrate the Lunar New Year, a time of gathering with our loved ones, we also welcome the start of Lent this Ash Wednesday. In this similar vein of reunion, we would like to invite everyone to journey with us with this year’s theme, Homebound: Finding our place in the Heart of Christ.
The prophet Joel calls us with this invitation: “Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning. Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn, turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, and ready to relent.”
The invitation here is clear: God wants us to return home, to turn to Him again. He desires our sincere inner repentance and genuine contrition from sin. He desires these over the outward superficial displays of grief or religious rituals. Jesus echoes this sentiment in the Gospel reading. So let us use the reflections over Lent to Holy week to approach God with contrite, yet hopeful hearts, trusting in His mercy that forgives and redeems us for Himself.
Let us do this by journeying home to God together with Christ this Lent – with Him, from the desert to Calvary, and to His Resurrection. Shall we?