Ash Wednesday is not an obvious time to reflect on the Trinity. On the other hand, Christians continue to talk about the One God as Trinity so that we will understand that relationship is of the very essence of God. God cannot be God except as the unified relationship of the three divine persons. As we think about what we are going to do for Lent on this Ash Wednesday we should have improving, deepening, growing our relationships as the end in view so we can be more Godly. Look at the traditional Lenten practices Jesus preaches: prayer, fasting, almsgiving. Our prayer during Lent should have as its goal strengthening our relationship with God. Even Church-going people can treat God as one thing among many in our lives. We go to work, we recreate, we pay bills, we take a nap, and we pray. This Lent let us put our relationship with God at the heart of all that we do. Think of a child asking his father if he can go out to play. The father will answer, “go, ask your mother.” He can only make the decision in light of his relationship with his wife. All of the things we do — work, play, rest — should be brought to prayer because of our relationship with God.
Fasting is a reminder of our relationship with the world around us. Pope Francis has taught us that care for “our common home,” mother earth, is a spiritual, a religious responsibility. By fasting we are relinquishing the human tendency for “more.” Instead of getting more stuff, more enjoyment, more self-satisfaction, we commit ourselves to less, to living in relationship with creation in a way that helps to preserve and care for the creation we have received. Lent can be the occasion to celebrate our relationship to all that God has given us, even the color purple in a field.
Almsgiving serves to keep us in relationship with other people. We have a cultural ideal of the Lone Ranger, John Wayne, Lara Croft — the hero who doesn’t need others. That is not how the Bible things. The Bible teaches us that we belong to each other, that we have a responsibility to care for one another. Almsgiving develops a relationship with others who would ordinarily be on the periphery but who now move to the center. Our Lenten practice should reflect our connected, how related we all are as the children of God.
