Recently we transitioned from the season of Christmas into Ordinary Time. It is hard to believe that we are now under a month away from Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lenten season which this year will be Saint Valentine’s Day. The season of Lent prepares us for the coming of Easter where we will rejoice with our risen Lord.
In our Gospel we were instructed, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” These are timely words for they are one of the options that the minister may say as they trace ashes upon your head in the form of a cross. The other option, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The reception of ashes is a penitential practice that reminds us of our own mortality and that we are sinners who are in need of God’s mercy.
To “repent, and believe in the Gospel” requires us to give a response. The Lord has died upon the cross and through this action we have been set free from sin and death. We must now choose to do something with that gift that has been extended to us. The question that often comes our way from people of other faith traditions is: Are you saved?
Yes we are saved because of the cross, but we must choose to do something with this gift. To “repent, and believe in the Gospel” reminds us of what must take place day by day. It is not good enough to be passive in our practice of faith because the Lord has already done all the work. We cannot think that we have been baptized and therefore we are owed Heaven. Instead we must heed those words spoken in the Gospel of Saint Mark, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
This active practice of faith was found in Simon, Andrew, James, and John as they were casting their nets into the sea. The Lord called to them and we are told that “they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.” Here they were not passive at this call that came to them and instead surrendered everything unto the Lord when they heard this call.
As Saint Paul teaches in his Letter to the Romans, “so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” This is precisely what we are challenged to do each day in our walk with the Lord. This should make us reflect on those ways in which we have allowed ourself to wonder away from Him and thus live according to the flesh and not the spirit.
May we allow such active conversion of heart to take place within us in order that we may truly be found prepared to encounter the Lord. In the words of Saint John Paul II, “Attentive listening to God’s Word, constant prayer, interior and exterior fasting, works of charity that concretely express our solidarity with our brothers and sisters: these matters cannot be avoided by those who, reborn to new life in Baptism, no longer intend to live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Let our desire for such repentance not be mere words, but put into action. Let us “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
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