Ash Wednesday
I’ve been focusing much prayer and thought recently on what it means to follow Christ closely every step of the way. Our earthly lives ought to be a true participation in every aspect of Christ’s life, ministry, prayer, relationship with the Father, suffering, dying, rising . . . Today we enter the desert with Jesus. Just as Jesus spent 40 days in the desert praying and fasting and undergoing temptation, we too participate with him in his desert experience during Lent. Jesus came out of the desert ready to begin his earthly ministry. As we begin Lent today, let us not only prepare ourselves for this season of penitence, but also for whatever God has prepared for us on the other end. What is our Lenten experience preparing us for?
God desires that every person’s life might be ordered in him from conception to entry into the Beatific Vision. I picture the trajectory of a rightly ordered life as a beautiful sweep, like a holy Nike swoosh from the moment of conception to the moment that soul enters fully into the divine life in glory. We remain “ordered” by following Christ. As I’ve pondered this relationship, I realize that following Christ does not mean merely following his example or following from a comfortable distance as an observer. I don’t think we’re called to simply emulate Christ. We are not passive observers or spectators as we consider the life of Christ and our response to him. No, we are partakers in the divine life. We partake, we share in Christ’s life, ministry, and his Paschal Mystery. We follow him every step of the way, we enter fully into Christ’s journey. We are meant to actively follow him step by step and to experience everything he experienced. After all, he did it all for our sake! When Jesus says, “Follow me!” he really means it. He wants us to be “all in” with him.
So, when Christ spent 40 days in the desert, that was not an isolated or private experience intended only for him. The Church’s establishment of Lent with its inherent disciplines, practices, and prayer is an invitation to enter the desert with Christ. Each of us experience our own unique Lenten journey, but we must remember that it is a participation with Jesus in the desert. We “do Lent” with him and in him. As you walk with Christ into the desert this year, what does he want you to encounter there? What has he prepared for you? What is the nature of repentance to which he summons you? What might your conversion look like? And as you ponder those questions and others that the Holy Spirit may prompt you, what specific spiritual disciplines do you need to pursue in order to cooperate with God’s will for you in the desert? Certainly, we are all called to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. How will you uniquely and specifically practice those disciplines in order to bring about the growth, formation, and transformation that God desires for you?
Let us also ask God what he has in store for us as we exit the desert and celebrate the Easter season in a few weeks. Jesus left the desert and immediately began his earthly ministry. He had a specific assignment, which he carried out according to the Father’s will. So, too, do we. God has a mission for each one of us. And coming out of the desert, may we each be uniquely prepared and equipped to be more receptive and obedient to that divine summons. St Paul writes in our second reading, “Brothers and sisters: We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 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.” May we be reconciled to God during Lent. And as we exit the desert of Lent, wouldn’t it be incredible if each one of us had become a bit more fully “the righteousness of God in him.” We do that by following Christ as a partaker and participant; truly following him by his grace and in the strength he provides. May God bless you richly on your Lenten journey and beyond.
-Elizabeth Wells