Like that son, we too have forgotten the familiar scent of our home, we have squandered a precious inheritance on paltry things and have ended up with empty hands and an unhappy heart. We can think of the prodigal son and realize that, for us too, it is time to return to the Father. To embark on this journey, we have to unmask these illusions.īut we can ask ourselves: how do we then proceed on our journey back to God? We can be guided by return journeys described in the word of God. So it is with us: our journey back to God is blocked by our unhealthy attachments, held back by the seductive snares of our sins, by the false security of money and appearances, by the paralysis of our discontents. During their journey, there was an ever-present temptation to yearn for leeks, to turn back, to cling to memories of the past or to this or that idol. How difficult it was to leave Egypt! It was more difficult for God’s people to leave the Egypt of the heart, that Egypt they carried within them, than to leave the land of Egypt. These forty days correspond to the forty years that God’s people trekked through the desert to return to their homeland. The journey of Lent is an exodus, an exodus from slavery to freedom. Let us ask: Where is my life’s navigation system taking me – towards God or towards myself? Do I live to please the Lord, or to be noticed, praised, put at the head of line…? Do I have a “wobbly” heart, which takes a step forwards and then one backwards? Do I love the Lord a bit and the world a bit, or is my heart steadfast in God? Am I content with my hypocrisies, or do I work to free my heart from the duplicity and falsehood that tie it down?
This is the core of Lent: asking where our hearts are directed. Lent is not just about the little sacrifices we make, but about discerning where our hearts are directed. It is a time to reconsider the path we are taking, to find the route that leads us home and to rediscover our profound relationship with God, on whom everything depends. Lent is a journey that involves our whole life, our entire being. Return to me, he says, with all your heart.
In this life, we will always have things to do and excuses to offer, but right now, brothers and sisters, right now is the time to return to God. Right now, however, God is speaking to our hearts. I can’t come today, but tomorrow I will begin to pray and do something for others”. How many times, in our activity or indifference, have we told him: “Lord, I will come to you later, just wait a little. We hear an invitation that arises from the heart of God, who with open arms and longing eyes pleads with us: “Return to me with all your heart” ( Joel 2:12). They point out the path we are to follow. We are now embarking on our Lenten journey, which opens with the words of the prophet Joel. HOLY MASS, BLESSING AND IMPOSITION OF THE ASHES
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