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The celebration of Ash Wednesday sets in a period of Lent, a time of
purification that invites all Christians to renounce evil, turn to God,
reconcile with one's fellowmen and build harmony with the entire
creation. It is marked by prayer, fasting and good works that enable
Christians to bring about an 'exodus' , a crossover from the life of
slavery, of sin, to a life of freedom and authenticity of being a child
of God.
This call to authentic freedom aptly begins with the ritual of putting
on the ashes that symbolize the finitude and mortality of human life and
the need to be redeemed by the mercy of God. It also has an ecological
dimension as the sacred words: "Remember man you are dust and to dust
you will return" (Gen.3:19), firmly express the solidarity of humanity
with the entire creation.
The symbol of ashes makes Ash Wednesday a celebration of a call to an
authentic freedom as a child of God as it inaugurates a season of Lent
that offers each year a 40- day period to passover from death to life,
sin to freedom, discord to reconciliation, hatred to love, selfishness
to sharing and from despair to hope.
The 40 days of renewal equal to a kyriological moment of intense grace
that invites Christians to slow down the pace of the journey of their
lives, look at the bigger picture and illumine and ennoble their lives
through the experience of God's mercy.
It is a time to look back and to look around and to carve a future path
of life through a look ahead in the light of Christ. That is why
Christians consider these 40 days of fast as a way of the cross wherein
they are invited to contemplate on the mystery of the crucified saviour
and experience the mercy and the love of God communicated through the
passion of Christ on the cross and move through his death and
resurrection to the authentic freedom of a child of God.
How are we to take this journey or the way of the cross in our times? We
begin this journey t hrough an existential look at human life. Humans
have a tendency to fall away from their authentic self into a 'they
self'. Often we find our self falling into a 'crowd' as we blindly
follow a way of life designed for us by forces that chase their own
vested interests. Falling into the 'they self' has materialized and
comsumerized us in our predominantly secularized world. This has led
humans to identify with 'being' as 'having'. As a result, to be human is
thought to be the same as to have material possessions. Hence, humans
spend their lifetime seeking money, power and the things they can offer.
Lent calls Christians to a deep understanding of this tendency of
falling into the 'they self' and exhorts them to begin the return
journey to the authentic self. The trap of sin can be seen in our times
as a temptation of mixing 'being' with 'having'. Hence, Lent becomes a
challenge to imitate the Son of God and accept his beatitudes. The
beatitudes are 'be-attitudes', the attitudes 'to be' authentically
human. The challenge is 'to be'… to be poor, to be honest, to be
simple, to be caring, to be forgiving, to be serving… This return to
the authentic self is deeply embedded in the spirit of Lent. It is
ingrained in its penitential as well as baptismal character. Thus, Lent
as a whole is a return, a re-turn, turn to the authentic self, to the
true identity of being a child of God that Christians believe to have
become at the time of their baptism.
The innocent freedom of the child of God that is taken away by sin can
be rediscovered by being like Christ, the son of God. Therefore, this
return to the authentic self can be seen as a return to compassion and
non-violence of thought and action. Hence, Lent can be seen as a call to
accept and follow a green way of life so that we can humanize everything
through our thought and action. While Lent has largely encouraged us to
follow the via negative, the way of not doing, we are certainly
encouraged to be more positive in our times.
Hence, in the context of our quest for a green Lent, it becomes a
challenge to seek alternatives for plastics, reduce the use of paper,
fight pollution of all kinds, use organic vegetables, show care to the
environment, use composting and other bio-friendly methods of waste
management, confess your green sins, work for eco-justice, walk more and
use public transport, replace regular light bulbs with energy-saving
compact bulbs and turn off lights when not in use. These green
resolutions are very much in accordance with the spirit of Lent. Led by
this eco-sensitivity, we can root ourselves in an eco-spirituality that
can make us compassionate not only to nature but to every fellow pilgrim
on the face of the earth. It will challenge us to die to the self
seeking 'I' and rise to a universal 'We'. In the harmonious embrace of
this universal 'We', both nature and humanity will find their true
fulfillment.
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