A Sea of Compassion (Ash Wednesday)

St. Isaac of Nineveh

A Sea of Compassion

Ash Wednesday
10 February 2016; 12:00 noon and 7:00 p.m. Said Mass

With Imposition of Ashes
Homily Delivered at the Parish Church of Trinity Ashland, Oregon

The Rev. Fr. Tony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D.

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 103; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10;

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 

God, take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh.  Amen

Saint Augustine is famously said to have prayed, “Give me chastity Lord, but not yet.” 

Repentance is not a pleasant thing.  It is particularly not pleasant if we have little or no intention of amending our lives.  Unpleasant, and it is not even repentance. 

To pray God for forgiveness without a sincere desire to amend one’s life, without a sincere desire to abandon sin, is like praying God to heal us without healing us.  It makes no sense. 

In the epistle today, St. Paul tells the Corinthians and tells us, “We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. … Do not accept the grace of God in vain. For God says (roughly quoting Isaiah 49:8),  “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.  See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!”  (2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:2) 

Reconciliation is what repentance is all about.  Being acceptable or finding favor and grace is what it is all about.  Being saved from ourselves is what it is all about.  

The Christian Church established long ago the period of Lent, the preparation for Holy Week and Easter, as a period of penance and contrition.  We put away the “Alleluias” and overly joyous celebration.  Just as we imposed ashes today, throughout Lent we impose disciplines on ourselves, giving up meat, sweets, coffee, or fats, or adding additional service and devotions.   Lenten devotions include abstinence, giving up on things that please us, and fasting, foregoing food altogether for specified periods of time.  They also include special corporeal acts of mercy: feeding the hungry, almsgiving to the poor, standing with and supporting the afflicted and downtrodden, burying the dead, and visiting the sick and the bereaved.   Special periods of prayer and reflection help us approach God. The goal is to help us recognize where we fall short, and, in the words of the prayer book, “worthily lament our sins.” 

As the Gospel reading and the alternate Hebrew Scripture reading from Isaiah say, this is not for show, not to impress others, not to impress ourselves.  This is to help us connect to God. 

For Lent is not about us, but about God.

St. Isaac of Nineveh, a Syrian mystic and ascetic who died in A.D. 700 wrote this: 

“To the extent a person draws closer to God—even if only in his or her intentions—to just that extent does God draw close to that person with His manifold gifts.

“A handful of sand thrown into the sea, is what sinning is like, when compared to God’s Providence and Compassion.  Just as an abundant source of water is not impeded by a handful of dust, so is the Creator’s Compassion not defeated by the sins of His creations.

“What is imprinted in us at birth comes before faith and is the path leading to faith and toward God.   What God plants in our very being when we are born, it alone brings us to the point where we feel the need to trust God, Who had brought everything into being.

“Those in whom the light of faith truly shines never arrive at such shamelessness as to give God demands: "Give us this," or  "Remove from us this."  The genuine Father, whose great Love transcends in countless ways the love of any father we might know, gives us spiritual eyes.  Because of this, we continually view the Father’s Providence, and are no longer concerned in the slightest about ourselves.   God can do more than anyone else, and can assist us by a far greater measure than we could ever ask for, or even imagine.”

God is a great Sea of Compassion, an Ocean of Mercy, a robust and powerful Spring of Grace:  undeserved, one-way, love and acceptance.   Jesus’ death for us on the cross and victory over the powers of darkness through God raising him from death and hell is the way that God reaches out to us in love. 

Let us not accept the grace of God in vain.  Let us identify our failings, be contrite, turn to God and ask for help, and, God helping, amend our lives. 

For today is the day of acceptance, the day of favor, and the day of salvation.  Let us not procrastinate or delay. 

In the name of Christ, Amen.