Transcript
In a challenging juxtaposition, this Wednesday is both St Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. The first calls for roses and chocolate, the second for ashes and repentance. Yet both are about love.

It occurs to me that, in these days of central heating, many people will be unfamiliar with ashes. But, through the ages, these cold remains of fire and warmth, these grey remains of bright flame, have symbolised death and repentance. On Ash Wednesday in the Church, the priest marks the sign of the cross in ashes on the foreheads of the faithful, intoning the words:
 Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
 Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.
Words which are a reminder of mortality and an invitation to ongoing repentance.

And so Lent begins, forty days of fasting, penitence, and spiritual discipline in solidarity with Jesus’s forty days being tempted in the wilderness and in preparation for the joy of the Easter celebration. 

But does the church get so fixated on sin that it loses something important? Few of us deliberately do what we know to be wrong, but most of us know our flaws and failings and, though it’s tempting to excuse ourselves, we also long to be lovable. Being constantly reminded of our shortcomings is not an effective way to help us improve. 

Sin is serious—we know how serious when we look at the suffering in the world caused by human pride, greed, aggression. Personally, I understand sin to be anything which acts against, or blocks, the flow of divine love. Even minor peccadillos are smears upon a human soul. However, as a friend of mine wrote recently, sin has its consequences, but one of those consequences is not that God withdraws his love from us. 

Instead, God steadfastly longs for our healing and well-being so that our true potential as his children is revealed. Christ is, as it were, our Valentine from God. The Good Friday cross shows that God is willing to suffer the consequences of our sin with us. The Easter resurrection proclaims He is able to transform death into new life. God shares in human life so that humans can share in divine life. In our deep-felt response of gratitude, we discover that ‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us’. (Romans 5.5)

So, however we observe Lent, let’s be positive and regard it as a time for spiritual spring-cleaning and growth in order to experience God’s love more deeply, so that our loving response to God and each other also deepens. May you have a holy Lent.

And may you grow in grace, self-knowledge and discipline
so your soul shines more brightly with the love God has for you. Amen

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