Ash Wednesday. The Beginning of Lent. Each year, in the passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus invokes the traditional practices of Jewish piety: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These are appropriate for Lent because they have as their aim putting us in touch. Prayer is about putting us in touch with God. As we pray we discover how close God is to us. Fasting is about putting ourselves in touch with ourselves. When we fast we have to confront those behaviors which are compulsions, not choices which help us to become the people we are made to be. Almsgiving puts us in touch with our neighbor. We reach out to those who are hurting or are in need to live in human solidarity.
