Lenten Reflection - Ash Wednesday

When was the last time your heart was broken? Maybe it was when a dear person died of Covid; when you saw the tragic images of the war in Ukraine, or when you felt betrayed by a close friend. Situations that break our hearts allow us to touch the deepest layers of our lives. Recall, for example, all the pain and uncertainty a person goes through when an unexpected terrible illness, a deadly accident, or the end of a relationship happens. Sometimes we experience that our hearts are so broken that they have turned into pieces, into ashes. These are situations when we do not only ask ourselves why that happened but what for. Situations like these suddenly push us on the quest for the meaning of our lives. Once we are able to articulate, to integrate the pieces, the ashes of our hearts, then we are reborn. Yes! Reborn!

Now, putting the pieces together and bringing the ashes of our hearts together takes time and work. We could say that mending a broken heart implies a patient journey: the journey of going back to our true and authentic being. We cannot do it alone, we need one another, and we need God: "Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning."

Going back to the Lord is in itself the journey that mends our hearts. As we walk this journey our hearts are mended because it is a movement of love, of care for oneself and for one another, and for creation. Lent celebrates this going back to the Lord by returning to our humble beginnings, a broken heart, a heart reduced to pieces, to ashes. It is a journey to reaffirm the vulnerability of our human nature, our woundedness, and our need for healing. Walking this journey makes us ready to allow God to restore our entire humanity and lead it to completeness and fullness in Christ the Lord.