WITH GOD WE RISE FROM THE ASHES
 
“Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor 6:2). Lent is an opportune time for us to return to what is essential in life, to rid ourselves of what burdens us, to reconcile with God, and to rekindle the fire of the Holy Spirit that secretly dwells among the ashes of our fragile humanity. God invites us: 'Return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). Return to what is essential in life.
 
THE RITE OF ASHES
The rite of ashes on Ash Wednesday sets us on the path of return and presents us with two challenges: to return to the truth about ourselves and to return to God and our neighbors.
First of all, we must return to the truth about ourselves. The ashes remind us who we are and where we come from: only God is Lord of all, and we are the work of His hands. We have life, while He is life. He is the Creator, while we are fragile clay formed by His hands.
 
WITHOUT GOD WE ARE JUST DUST
We come from the earth and need heaven, God. With Him we rise from the ashes, but without Him we are just dust. When we bow our heads to receive the ashes, let us remember: we belong to the Lord. He indeed “formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). We exist because He breathed the breath of life into us. And as a gentle and merciful Father, He awaits us with open arms. He always encourages us not to despair, even when we fall into the dust of our fragility and sin, “for He knows how we were made; He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14). God knows we are just dust, while we often forget this and think that we are self-sufficient, strong, unconquerable without Him. We use makeup to consider ourselves better than we are: we are, however, dust. Lent is a time of truth that casts off the masks we wear daily to appear perfect to others.
 
REVITALIZING OUR RELATIONSHIPS
The ashes also call us to return to God and to our neighbors. Indeed, we exist only through relationships. The ash we receive on our heads tells us that the assumption of self-sufficiency is false and that deifying the self is destructive and confines us in a cage of loneliness. Lent is a suitable time for revitalizing our relationships with God and with others. Let us then break free from the fortress of our closed ego, tear the shackles of individualism, rediscover those who walk beside us each day, and learn to love them anew.
From a homily by Pope Francis on February 22, 2023. Editorially abbreviated and modified.
 
IF YOU REALLY EXIST, GOD...
“Dude, Willi, aren't you sick?” Dieter slapped me on the shoulder with his prison hand. “What's going on with you?” I stared at him wide-eyed. What should be going on? I felt wonderful. Dieter continued, “You're not like you used to be. When was the last time you beat someone up? When was the last time you threw food at a guard? And when was the last time you were even down?”
“Down,” that’s what they called the prison solitary confinement. My second home. He was right; I hadn’t been “down” for a long time. The last time was probably six months ago. It was strange because I used to be there very often. What happened? The Bible I happened to read during that solitary confinement came to mind. And my conversation with myself and then with God, who doesn’t exist, after all.
The last six months flashed before my eyes. Nothing had been different than before. I went to work, lived everyday prison life. Nothing extraordinary had happened. And that was extraordinarily ordinary! It was only now that I realized that, for instance, I no longer had the urge to beat someone up. This urge had accompanied me my entire life. It must have changed unnoticed sometime after that stay in solitary confinement. But it wasn’t a bad feeling. I didn’t miss the resentment or hatred. It was as if I had somehow become a new Willi.
Dieter looked at me in astonishment. I looked around, grabbed his arm, dragged him to his cell, and closed the door. “I’m not sick. But something really happened,” I began, my voice trembling. I told him about the day in solitary, about the Bible, about reading, about my conversation with an imaginary God. And that I had challenged God to change me. But that I didn’t believe in such nonsense at all; still, what if it were true? What if God exists? And what if He really changes me? Dieter stared at me with his mouth open — he wasn’t used to such words from me. Until now, he had befriended the tough Willi, who beat up everyone in his way. Now he was sitting in front of me, hearing me babble about God and love!
I then went back to my cell, sat on the bed, and stared at the wall. Did God really change me? Does He really exist? Does He really love me? And does He really listen when I say something to Him? That would be truly unbelievable. I leaned my head in my hands. If it were true, then there would be hope for me to change. That I could really be useful. It seemed bizarre to think this way. But at the same time, it felt good.
“If you really exist, God,” I said to the wall, “then do with me what you want. Take me and make me something meaningful. Someone who wishes no evil for people, but rather good.” I shuddered. This thought was completely new to me. It was strange. But I felt good. I felt free. I was a prisoner of German justice in cell number 116 at Bruchsal penitentiary. But inside, I suddenly felt greater freedom than ever before.
Reworked with permission based on the autobiographical book: Wilhelm Buntz, Bible Smoker, published by Paulínky www.paulinky.cz. Edited.
 
 
DID GOD DESIRE JESUS’ DEATH ON THE CROSS?
 
CHRIST’S CROSS TRANSFORMED THE MEANING OF SUFFERING
Christ’s cross transformed the meaning of every human pain and suffering. Suffering is no longer perceived as punishment or curse. After the Son of God took suffering upon Himself, it was redeemed from the root. What is the most certain proof that the drink offered to you is not poisoned? That the one serving it drinks from the same glass before you. God did just that! On the cross, before the eyes of the world, He drank the cup of pain to the last drop. Thus He showed that it is not poisonous, but that there lies a pearl at its bottom. For nailed to the cross is every human pain. Jesus died for all. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). Thanks to Christ’s cross, suffering has also become a kind of effective means of salvation for people.
 
POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF BAD THINGS
What light does this cast on the dramatic circumstances of our current life? We can find positive consequences from negative and bad things. Beware, let us not be mistaken. God is our ally, not any evil! “I have plans for peace, not for disaster,” says the Bible (cf. Jeremiah 29:11). He who once wept over Lazarus’s death today weeps over every wound that afflicts each person and all humanity. Yes, God “suffers,” like every father and every mother. God participates in our pain to overcome it. Only God can draw an even greater good from every evil.
 
GOD PLACED HUMAN FREEDOM IN HIS PLAN
Did God the Father desire the death of His Son on the cross to draw good from it? No, He merely allowed human freedom to take its course — yet He placed it in His plan, not in a human one. The same applies to everything that happens to us in the world... God does not provoke it. However, He has granted freedom to humans and, in a certain sense, to nature as well. He did not create the world or us as a clockwork machine programmed from the beginning in every smallest movement.
 
WHO LOOKS TO GOD IN FAITH WILL RISE
When the Jews suffered from the bites of poisonous snakes in the desert, God commanded Moses to raise a bronze serpent on a pole, and whoever looked at it would not die. Jesus applied this symbol to Himself. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14–15). We, too, are currently attacked by poisonous “snakes” in many forms of evil. Let us look to Him who was “lifted up” on the cross. Those who look to Him in faith shall not die. And if they die, it will be so that they may enter into eternal life. “After three days I will rise,” Jesus predicted (cf. Matthew 9:11). We also believe that we will rise and come out of our graves. To a more brotherly and human life. To a life filled!
 
Adapted from a homily by Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMcap. On Good Friday, April 10, 2020. Edited. Ave Crux, spes unica!
Hail, Cross, our only hope!