Ash Wednesday-The Renewal of our Spiritual Athleticism

Well, today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. I was struck by the first reading from the Office of Readings for today, which is Isaiah 58:1-12. To be honest, and to expose my scriptural ignorance, I had never read this passage before, so, I was very impressed by how pertinent it was to Lent. We have to recall that the purpose of Lent is to draw closer to Christ.

This drawing closer to Christ is fundamentally eschatological, that is, it is fundamentally linked to the death and resurrection of Christ, and our own death, judgment, and resurrection at the end time.  As we journey towards the cross of Good Friday, we prepare ourselves for our own Christian death and judgment. As we journey towards the resurrection of Easter, we prepare ourselves to be worthy of our own bodily resurrection at the end time.

This journey and preparation begins now. Every day is an opportunity for conversion, every day we must either pray with our whole hearts, do good works for the love of God and neighbor, and participate in the life of the Church, or fall behind, succumbing to our own egotism, pride, and vanity. We fast, pray, and give alms during Lent (the three forms of penance), not to beat ourselves up and say "woe is me!" (which often is pride in disguise), but to direct our life towards the Cross.  Lent is a time to ask ourselves the tough questions:

"Am I daily living a Christian life?",

"Do I truly pray, or do I just say words?

"Is my life directed towards God, or towards my own self-interests?"

"Have I listened to the Word of God and born fruit, as the parable of the seed and the sower? Or do I see my Christian duties as a burden?"

"Do I separate my faith from my life? Do I see my faith and spirituality as purely private matters? Or do I live as a genuine Christian no matter where I am or what I am doing?"

Paul loves the analogy of athletes and runners as the rigor, training, and practice of Christian life.  Just as athletes endure hardships, train for hours, control their diet and what they put into their body, and are extremely focused on obtaining their prize, so must Christians readily endure hardships by emptying our selves, train for hours in prayer and good works, control our diet and desires by fasting, and must be extremely focused on obtaining our prize of eternal life.  We Christians, must be athletes, not necessarily of the body, but of the spirit.

Christ journeyed to the Cross, and there emptied himself for love of the world. So must we journey towards the eternal Cross, and daily empty ourselves for love of Christ.

Here is the passage from Isaiah.

1 "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. 3 'Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?' Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD? 6 "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. "If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. 11 And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.