Lent is a time to start breathing again

The words of the Prophet Joel, from the first Reading: "Return to me with all your heart! Return to the Lord!" These words, apply to everyone, and exclude no one; we all want to return to the merciful heart of the Father.

Lent, is a path that leads to the triumph of mercy over all that would crush us or reduce us to something unworthy of our dignity as God's children. The mark of ashes, received during the ceremony, reminds us of our origins, that we are dust - but, it also reminds us that God breathed life into each of us. The breath of God's life, saves us from the asphyxia that dampens our faith, cools our charity, and strangles every hope.

Lent is a time for saying no: No to spiritual asphyxia caused by indifference; no to the toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words, no to a prayer that soothes our conscience, an almsgiving that leaves us selfsatisfied, a fasting that makes us feel good, no to all forms of exclusion.

But Lent is also a time for remembering, a time to reflect and ask ourselves what we would be if God had closed His doors to us. It is a time, too, to ask where we would be without so many people who have helped us along our journey.

Lent is a time to start breathing again. The time to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust to humanity.