THAT’S the title of
some pop songs, the most notable of
which was the one written by Dennis Lambert and performed
by the 5th
Dimension in 1973. It was a top hit with a catchy tune,
though the
lyrics definitely are not mainly religious in character.
Rather it
expresses angst over our tenuous and fragile human
condition in this
world.
Just the same, the
song cannot help but borrow some
religious expression that is at the fore and center of
Ash Wednesday,
the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. Such is
life. No
matter how secular and worldly things can be, the
religious sentiment
would always manage to come out. Thus, I believe that
there is always
hope in life no matter how far south it falls from God.
Yes, it’s true that a
constituent part of us came from ash
and dust and that we would one day end up also there. But
let’s never
forget that there is also another constituent part of
ours that is
spiritual and as such is above the fate of our material
condition.
These two components
form one organic whole with the
mortality of the material part taken up by the
immortality of the
spiritual part which is our soul. More than this, our
spiritual soul,
being rational and capable to being elevated to the
supernatural
order, actually originates from the Spirit of God, its
creator, and is
kept properly alive by that Spirit if we only freely
connect ourselves
with the Spirit.
What the celebration
of Ash Wednesday and the whole season
of Lent signifies is that our body and everything related
to our
material, temporal and earthly condition should be
properly animated
by the Spirit of God so that our bodily and earthly
condition can also
participate in the spiritual, supernatural and eternal
life meant for
us.
Given the condition of
our body and everything related to
it, we need to discipline and purify it so that it can
enter into the
spiritual and supernatural world. This point was
articulated by Christ
when he said: “The Spirit gives life. The flesh profits
nothing. The
words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”
(Jn 6,63)
More graphically,
Christ said regarding this point: “If
anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take
up his cross
and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will
lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt
16,24-25)
Let’s try our best to
take these words of Christ seriously,
putting them into action especially during this season of
Lent. We
should be generous in going through the practices of
prayer, fasting
and abstinence, and the other means of self-denial and
mortification,
and works of mercy, since these are what Christ
recommends and what
the Church now encourages us to do. Let’s do them with
all our heart,
and not just out of compliance.
Let’s see to it that
these practices would really give us
the sensation that we are getting closer to Christ, that
we are
getting to be more and more like him, sharing his mind,
his intentions
and desires, his fate. Let’s be convinced that this is
what is truly
proper to us.
We need to realize
more and more deeply that in this life,
suffering and the need for purification are not only
unavoidable but
are first of all necessary, given the weakened, wounded
and sinful
condition of our humanity. If we go through them with
Christ, assuming
his attitude toward all this, then all our suffering
would have a
great redemptive value.
Let’s remember that
the Lenten season is actually a happy
season. It is like taking a shower with all the amenities
given to
make us truly clean and presentable to God and to
everybody else. Yes,
Lent is a season of smiles, of a great hope for an
assured victory.
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