Ash Wednesday
There is an urgency in Joel’s prophetic words today. And Joel is not just asking us to change our minds this time. No. Joel’s prophecy involves our whole bodies. The first reading from Joel urges us, “even now!” Even now, return with your whole heart. Fast. Weep. Mourn. Involve your whole body in turning toward God. In fact, Joel urges us to break open our hearts. Let our hearts be broken. Weep for what is worthy of weeping over. Mourn the loss of lives, of innocence.
God is gracious and merciful, Joel reminds us. God’s very nature is compassion. When we break open our hearts to God, we let God heal our hearts. And God invites us to gather together, to assemble, to not waste time, to cry out to God for healing for our communities. When we gather together, share our broken hearts with God and one another, we allow healing of ourselves. From that healing, God calls us forth to be part of God’s healing of the world.
It was in this spirit of a desire to be part of the healing of the world and to imagine a church more supportive of the healing ministry of women that several years ago, I went on pilgrimage with Catholic women across the Americas to Mexico City to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On our shared international multilingual (Spanish, Portuguese, English) Spotify playlist was the hymn “Danos Un Corazón.” “Danos un corazón, grande para amar/Give us a heart, large enough to love…New humanity, loving without borders/Pueblos nuevos, amando sin fronteras.”
God is gracious and merciful. Let us rend our hearts, and from our broken hearts, may God give us hearts full of love, love that moves our whole bodies to recreate our communities to love without borders, to love peace and work for justice. Danos un corazón, grande para amar.
—Kelly Adamson