Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Suggested Readings: Isaiah 58:1-12 Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Remember that you Love and that you are Beloved, and remember that to Love you shall return.

For one of only three times in this century, the season of Lent begins on Valentine’s Day. What shall we make of this unusual juxtaposition? For Ash Wednesday is a day for fasting, penitence, and ashes… while Valentine’s Day seems to be its perfect foil, a holiday known for chocolate, romance, and roses!

But I actually think the intertwining of Ash Wednesday with Valentine’s Day is quite perfect, for at the beginning of the Lenten season, we are being invited to participate in a divine exchange of Love worth contemplating. Yes, this exchange requires the solemn, silent sort of self-examination Lent is known for. But Lent also invites us to lean into the passions of our own very human, very tender hearts.

Lent is the time to follow the love story Jesus offers the world. The story of Jesus is a story of offering and receiving a kind of love that looks different from the love we see offered on a store-bought valentine. For Jesus offers a love that is entirely self-emptying. Jesus’ love is neither rationed nor saved nor stored on a shelf; rather, Jesus’ love is extravagant, abundant, freewheeling, and poured all out like the most expensive oil from that alabaster jar. Jesus’ love is boundaryless.

So on this day, when the ashes are imposed on our foreheads, we will again hear the sobering and familiar words, 

But I hope we will also hear the Spirit whispering a sort of valentine to us with these words: “Remember that you Love and that you are Beloved, and remember that to Love you shall return.”

Our very tender, very human hearts desperately need to hear and to receive this loving message.

As this new season begins, may you walk the path of Jesus’ self-emptying. May you be blessed with Love, with ashes, and with a Holy Lent.

Bonnie Smith Whitehouse