Ash Wednesday - the first meditation on "The crosses we bear"
Today, Ash Wednesday, Christians throughout the world receive ashes in the form of crosses on their foreheads, a sign that we are dust and unto dust we will return. This gesture to signify mourning or contrition is often mentioned in the Bible. Today, this practice symbolizes a call to do penance, pray, fast, give to the poor, and to return to the Gospel.
As a missionary in Haiti since 1989, no matter what day it is, every person I have seen has a cross on their forehead already. The recent earthquake in Haiti has multiplied the crosses. Many people struggle to survive on a good day, and now what little they had has been destroyed. Yet, there is a spirit among these people that cannot be destroyed. Because of their faith, they carry their cross with a sense of hope.
What good can come from this destruction? Just think how quickly humanitarian support started pouring in from around the world. The worldwide family of our brothers and sisters opened their hearts to help so that the Haitian people might feel that they have not been forgotten.
Perhaps this was God's way of helping us realize how blessed we are. Or perhaps this was God's way of helping us to recognize love of our neighbor. Even though we cannot take away the cross of another person, we can, in various ways, help them to bear it. We are called to help our brothers and sisters. Remember, no act of kindness is too small.
As we walk together these Lenten days, I pray we can be aware of the ways we can ease the weight of someone's cross…in doing so, we ease the burden of the cross we are asked to carry.
Lenten Carbon Fast
"The environment is God's gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole." Pope Benedict XVI
Please click on this link throughout Lent to see ways we can become wise stewards of God's creation through action that will help reduce our production of climate change pollution.
