Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

_{Joel 2: 12-18; Psalm 51; 2 Corinthians 5:20–6:20; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18}

Happy Valentine’s Day! A day of roses, sweets, and words of love.

Ash Wednesday has no greeting or sweets and flowers. It is a solemn day of fasting, but it is a day in which words of love are spoken.

“Return to me with your whole heart”. Are not these the words of an aching lover? Words of deep longing for a renewed relationship?

Both days, Valentine and Ash Wednesday, are about passion. Love’s longing passion for another. Falling in love is a wonderful and yet painful experience. “Hearts are made to be broken” [Oscar Wilde, De Profundis]. A deep, committed love has a price. Lovers willingly make sacrifices for one another, often giving up their own priorities, preferences and pleasures for the happiness and well-being of the other.

We’ve dropped ‘Saint’ from our greetings for today. We have forgotten the Roman martyr who, defying an emperor secretly presided over Christian marriages and refused to deny his first love, Jesus.

Valentine offered his life for the One who first offered his life for him. A deep relationship and commitment with a price for…

“Hearts are made to be broken” if we choose to return.

Are you and I willing to pay such a price, a broken heart?

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day!