The Heart of Lent

Ash Wednesday, as you know, marks the beginning of Lent. Throughout these forty days of Lent, we will recommit ourselves to our baptismal calling; we will recommit ourselves to following Jesus Christ.

This day - and this whole season - is marked by external signs of ashes, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. And while these external signs are good and important, they ought to point to a deeper, interior reality. These external signs manifest our heart's internal desire for change, transformation, and a deeper relationship with God.

Our readings today are filled with images of the heart. From the prophet Joel, we hear: "Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, and not your garments." And from the psalmist, we hear: "Create a clean heart within me, O God."

Whenever the Scriptures refer to the heart, the biblical writers speak of the heart as that interior place where we encounter God and God encounters us. The heart is that "private room" that Jesus speaks about in today's Gospel, that place where God speaks to us and sees our heart's desire. The heart is the place of our deepest longing, the contact point with God.

Sometimes, we allow sin, bad habits, vices, our possessions to cloud our heart's mind. We place a barrier between ourselves and God. Lent is a time for us to re-examine our hearts, to make sure we are "heart healthy," to restore our hearts, to be focused on our God.

Our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving allow us to rid ourselves of anything that hinders our hearts from being transformed by God. During Lent, we fast from those things which we don't need in order to feast on that which we were made for: God's life and love within us.

As we go forth this Lent, let us remember that our hearts will never be truly satisfied until they rest in God's love and peace. Our hearts will be restless until we experience once more the salvation brought to us through Jesus Christ. "Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!"