B - Ash Wednesday

Today, as I am sure you know, is Valentine’s Day and perhaps you have, or are planning to send a Valentine’s Day card.  Or perhaps you will give flowers, or chocolates to your love.   We are surrounded by the symbols of love, red hearts, balloons, flowers, poems, and so on.   But as Santa is to Christmas, and the Easter Bunny is to Easter, so all these signs of Valentines Day find their root in Saint Valentine.   Living during the dangerous first three centuries in the Roman empire, Saint Valentine was a priest or bishop who was martyred for his resolute love of Jesus and of the persecuted Christians of his day.   Under house arrest he healed the blind daughter of the Roman judge Asterius.   The judge moved by this wondrous healing asked what he should do and Valentinus, Saint Valentine, would tell him to destroy his pagan idols, that he should fast and be baptized.  Later, condemned to death by Claudius II, it is written that Valentinus would write to Judge Asteria’s daughter, the one he healed, signing the note, “From your Valentine”.   So now you know in whose footsteps you are following.

Our church grew and flourished by means of the martyrs – those willing to give up everything so as not to deny the truths of the faith – the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

My friends, we should celebrate St Valentines day, the flowers, cards, poems, chocolates are all quite lovely, but we should also be rooted in the truths of our faith, and in touch with the sacrifices the martyrs offered.  Our faith is one where the rubber meets the road and certainly is not one of pie in the sky, as some would propose.

Lent is an Anglo-Saxon word that means lengthening – the lengthening of days as we approach spring.  By it we begin to move beyond the darkness of Winter and prepare for the Light of Christ – the new dawn.  This preparation should be one where, the rubber meets the road, where we find the strength of the early church to plumb the depths of our Christian practice and to be willing to share it sometimes even at a cost.  This is our chance to take on more seriously the Lord’s instruction to be “Holy as I am Holy”.  And as Matthew tells us, to be “perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”.    We gather as a community to begin this Lenten journey.  And it is a journey since our destination should be a 40-days journey away from where we started.  Though formed into a single community we are each to take our journey personally and seriously.  The Gospel tells us how we are to do this and how this journeying is to change us.   By almsgiving we are to change how we relate to others and particularly the poor.  In prayer we are to deepen our relationship with our creator and God – the one who formed us in our mother’s womb.  By fasting we are to grow in the understanding of ourselves.  By these means we seek to make amends for our sins, to make penance, and so prepare to enter a new life.  These are three principal ways of conversion that enable us to become Holy.

This Lent think about the early church and the profound gifts they have passed on to you at such a price.  Diligently walk the Lenten journey frequenting the sacraments often.  If you have not been to confession in a while, go, since it is beautiful, and you will know that beauty. Rush to communion for this is the bread of life – Jesus fully present under the appearance of bread – this sacrament of love and a pledge of future glory.  Pray, fast, give alms, since by these we are continually converted and so ready ourselves for Easter – the promise of healing, peace, and a new life in friendship with God. 

Deacon Peter Bujwid
Saint Agnes, Arlington, MA.
February 14, 2024

 

Lectionary: 219, Jl 2:12-18, Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17, 2 Cor 5:20—6:2, Mt 6:1-6, 16-18