There is an old melody that goes like this, "does chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost over night."
Experience in life reveals to us that gum indeed loses its flavor; the more you chew it the harder and stale it comes and eventually you throw it out; so do Christians become stale and hard the more life chews what we have to offer; we lose our flavor through our encounter with life and the world. Thus, the church in her wisdom offers us a time of renewal, 40 days, of becoming a little more flavorful, filled once again with the fragrance of Christ, aromatic sense that captivates the taste buds of the world and brings about transformation.
Today we begin with ashes. The palms of rejoicing from Jesus entering Jerusalem, green with life, are now consumed with fire, turned to ash, black with repentance. These are the ashes of reality...as we are marked with ashes we enter into the truth of our existence the truth of solidarity, we are all dust come alive in the hands of God.
This 40 day journey is a journey of giving this gift of life back to the one who gave it; this is a training period in which we learn the Father by following the Son. This is only done through giving of ourself in imitating Christ.
We pray, where my space becomes God's space; we fast, where emptiness abounds so only God can fill; we give alms, in imitating Christ we too make charity concrete in our life by not only recognizing solidarity with others but living it.
Thus, we regain some of the flavor that has been spent and begin a new to live for Him.
Through the messiness of ashes we encounter the mercy of the cross; through the messiness of living we encounter the beauty of life; we are dust alive in the hands of God.
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