Ash Wednesday
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of our Lenten journey toward the Cross and through the Cross into the glory of Christ’s Resurrection. The Church, through our readings, invites us to humble ourselves, turn away from our sin, repent, seek reconciliation with God, and devote ourselves to prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. I feel led to focus my reflection on the second reading, in which St Paul implores us to be reconciled to God. In gratitude to the One who became sin for our sake, may we today seek reconciliation with God so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
“We implore you [begs St Paul] on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Paul presents himself as an ambassador, an emissary, a representative of Christ – one through whom God makes this appeal. Through God’s Word, I hear God making this same appeal to us today: be reconciled to God.
The Greek word that Paul uses when he says “be reconciled” was a term originally used for the exchange of coins – to change or exchange one for the other. In relationships, it can mean changing from enmity to friendship. This word means not simply to change, but to change decisively, to come together, to change to the same position. God does not and cannot change; God calls us to change, to decisively change, to turn away from our sin and seek to be reconciled to God, to come over to God’s side, to align ourselves with God’s position, to receive Divine life.
This decisive change, this exchange of our nature for God’s takes place because of Christ’s work on the Cross. Paul declares, “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” What a great exchange!! This is what it means to be reconciled! Christ took on our sin so that we might take on God’s righteousness. Christ became like us in every way but sin, and then took that sin upon himself, so that we might become like him and share in the Divine nature. We exchange one for the other when we die to ourselves and give our lives over to God.
The Paschal Mystery is twofold: by his death on the Cross, Christ frees us from sin, and by his Resurrection, Jesus opens the way to Divine life. God forgives our sins and desires to heal and transform us. By reconciling us to himself in Christ, God restores our brokenness and restores the relationship that had been broken by sin. By this glorious free gift, God invites us to exchange our lives for a life in Christ.
This Lent, as we devote ourselves to prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and other spiritual disciplines, let us do so with the expressed goal of reconciliation with God so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Whatever it is that we might “give up” or “take on” this Lent, let us do that with the expressed purpose of becoming more like Christ. Let our disciplines and practices not be an end in and of themselves, but rather, let them be the means by which we achieve our goal of becoming the righteousness of God in Christ. Spiritual disciplines and giving things up mean nothing unless we come out on the other side of Easter as transformed people. Let us not simply persevere through Lent as if perseverance is the main goal. Let us persevere with our focus on reconciliation, such that this Lent is marked by participating in God’s “great exchange” like never before! As we celebrate Easter in six weeks, may the righteousness of God be decisively more evident in our lives.
In saying yes to God’s call to reconciliation, I willingly exchange my life for a life in Christ. I die to myself so that I might live for Christ. I commit to decisively change my life through repentance so that I can receive Christ’s life in abundance.
May Paul’s beseeching words compel us, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
-Elizabeth Wells