Let us follow Jesus into the desert.
As Christ went without food for forty days let us consider what we could do without as well. Oh, not for the purpose of seeing how strong we are, quite the opposite...to reveal our weakness and need for God.
An ancient rabbi, Rabbi Eliezer, once told his students, "Repent one day before you death." Surprised at his statement they responded, "No one knows when they are going to die." Eliezer replied, "Then all the more reason that we should repent today!"
On this Ash Wednesday, in light of our mortality and that from the ground we come and the ground we will return...let us follow Jesus into the desert.
As a Catholic, when the priest makes the sign of the cross in ash on my forehead, he says "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." And the fasting and repentence required on this day is to remind us that we are sorry for our sins and our faults and that we are human and need to be reminded that we often are not Christlike.
Posted by: Susan McWhite | February 17, 2010 at 03:41 PM