The Dean of Westminster’s Ash Wednesday sermon 2009
25th February 2009 at 5:00 pm
“We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 2 Cor. 5: 20
“The fast, as taught by holy lore, we keep in solemn course once more.”
So begins J M Neale’s translation of a Lenten office hymn attributed to Pope St Gregory the Great. Ash Wednesday begins our solemn Lenten fast and the hymn suggests what that might mean in practice.
“More sparing therefore let us make
the words we speak, the food we take,
our sleep and mirth, - and closer barred
be every sense in holy guard.”
So, Gregory the Great and a 6th century Lent expected Christians during the forty days to speak less, to eat less, to sleep less and to laugh less than usual, and moreover to guard the senses, to be less committed to the pursuit of sensual pleasure: in Neale’s memorable translation to “avoid the evil thoughts that roll like waters o'er the heedless soul.”
The hymn describes the object of this Lenten fasting, in terms of imploring God’s forgiveness and of growing to please God more. The hymn looks forward to the peace and joy of the heavenly kingdom:
“Forgive the sin that we have wrought;
increase the good that we have sought:
that we at length, our wanderings o'er,
may please Thee here and evermore.”
The Lenten discipline of those days, as we know, involved surviving on a vegetarian diet with no meat or fish, or butter or eggs; thus pancakes on Shrove Tuesday allowed the penitent to empty the larder of non-Lenten fare. The purpose of this discipline was to keep the body down so that the soul might flourish, to focus everything not on ourselves and our human needs but on God. St Paul writing to the Corinthians said, “Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. So I … punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.” [I Corinthians 9: 25, 27]
Contrast that with our current practice of Lent. We seem to have lost something of the intensity of focus on God. Fasting, or a version of it, is what people often do in January, as a detox after the excesses of the pre-Christmas binge. That focuses inevitably on ourselves, how we feel about our bodies, trimming off a little excess fat, how we look, part of the physical fitness obsession to which we are prone, in intention if not in fulfilment. So fasting in Lent tends towards the same end: looking good, feeling fit, focused on ourselves not on God.
Spiritual advice about Lent has tended over the years to move away from what we give up to what we take on. Lent discussion groups and prayer groups have flourished in parishes – but too easily they focus on our spiritual health, spiritual welfare, ourselves still, not God. And that fits all too comfortably with the purpose of worship as today’s self-obsessed society tends to see it. Where is the sense that we should go to church, that we should worship God as part of a regular godly discipline and obedience? Now too often people worship when they feel they need it, for spiritual uplift and refreshment, to feel better – again the focus is on ourselves, not on God.
Now I have nothing against detoxing, nothing against feeling better, nothing against looking good, feeling fit, nothing against spiritual uplift and refreshment. All these can be seen as excellent by-products of a spiritually well- ordered life. But if we make them objects in themselves or the prime motivation for our actions, say in going to church, or in saying our prayers, we shall never reach our goal.
Let’s face it. We are self-obsessed. It is no surprise. That after all is just another way of expressing the old root sin of pride, of selfishness. But we need to recognise that our self-obsession invades and infiltrates our religious life. How wretched we are, that even here in our spiritual lives sin tends to flourish.
The tradition of the Church calls us to submit to a rigorous Lenten discipline, of fasting and abstinence, of prayer and devotion. That will enable us “to punish [our] body and enslave it” so that we care less for our own feelings, for our own self-improvement, and are concerned above all to offer fitting praise and glory to God. It is our calling to praise and love Almighty God. We become most truly ourselves when we love and praise God. We are only really happy and fulfilled in the offering of glory to God. But if we offer that praise so that we can be happy and fulfilled, all will fall to dust.
It is by God’s action alone that we can enter fully into that relationship of love and grow in that praise and give true glory to God. The ultimate truth and really the only one worth knowing about ourselves is that God loves us. That love alone can call out from us a true love for him. St Augustine knew how far he had evaded that love, pursuing alternative goals and means of self-satisfaction, pursuing his own self-obsessions. Finally, by the action of God’s grace he came to know him and knowing him to love him. My prayer for us all is that we can learn this Lent to be less self-obsessed and more focused on God’s amazing love for us.
From Father Faber’s hymn, ‘My God how wonderful thou art’:
No earthly father loves like Thee
No mother e'er so mild
Bears and forbears as Thou hast done
With me, Thy sinful child
Father of Jesus, love's reward
What rapture will it be
Prostrate before Thy throne to lie
And gaze, and gaze on Thee.
But to achieve this state of perfect bliss we cannot rely on our wayward selves. St Augustine prayed: “Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient, so new, late have I loved Thee! And, behold, Thou wert within me and I myself on the outside, and it was there that I sought Thee. And into those lovely things, which Thou madest, all unlovely did I rush. Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee. Those things kept me far from Thee, things that would not exist, unless they were in Thee.
“Thou didst call, and shout, and shatter my deafness: Thou didst sparkle, and shine, and dispel my blindness: Thou sentest forth Thy fragrance, and I breathed deeply, and now I sigh for Thee: I tasted, and now do hunger and thirst: Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace.”
May you be richly blessed this Lent as you burn for God’s peace.