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A
SH
W
EDNESDAY
Joel 2:12
-
18
Psalms 51:3
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4, 5
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6ab, 12
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13, 14 and 17
2 Corinthians 5:20
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6:2
Matthew 6:1
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6, 16
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18
S
UMMARY
In the first reading, the prophet, Joel, exhorts the people of Judah to change their con-
duct. They are suffering from a plague of locusts that has caused great agricultural
losses. The plague struck just prior to harvest time, a time of revelry and heavy wine
drinking. Joel calls on the people to return to the Lord with their whole heart. In other
words, not simply some cultic change, but their whole conduct must change. He re-
minds them that their God is gracious and merciful. He is confident that Judah’s con-
version would be matched by God’s pity. Joel hopes for renewed agricultural prosperity
and with it the means to a revival of sacrifice by everyone
–
even “the elders and the
infants at the breast.” The conclusion of the reading confirms that “the Lord was stirred
to concern for his land and took pity on his people.”
The themes of acknowledging our sinfulness and seeking God’s reconciliation continue
through the psalm, the reading from Second Corinthians and Matthew’s Gospel. Paul
reminds the people of Corinth that they are “ambassadors for Christ”. He implores
them to be reconciled to God. The gospel harkens back to Joel’s appeal for more than
some external or cultic change. Jesus challenges his disciples “not to perform right-
eous deeds in order that people may see them”, but a complete change of heart. “Your
Father who sees what is hidden (in your heart) will repay you.”
R
EFLECTION
As we mark our foreheads with ashes on this first day of Lent, the readings for today
remind us that in the midst of the incredible technological and geo
-
political change
we’ve experienced
–
just in our lifetime
–
human nature remains very much the same.
The people of Judah thought that through wine induced ecstasies and cultic lamenta-
tion they could revive the god of vegetation, Baal, to spare them from the devastation
caused by the plague of locusts. Joel, however, reminded them that this plague is not
the result of the imagined death of nonexistent Baal. It was sent by the Lord their God
and only conversion to him would bring relief. Human existence as the people of Judah
knew it was being threatened. Joel exhorted Judah that now is the acceptable time to
return to the Lord with their whole heart.
In a lecture a few weeks ago, the physicist, Stephen Hawking warned that humanity is
inching closer to demise and humans are to blame. He
cautioned that disasters engi-
neered by humans, including climate change, nuclear war and genetically engineered
viruses, could be the downfall of life as we know it on earth. We must change our
ways.
Last June in his encyclical, “Laudato Si”, Pope Francis exhorted us to change our ways
concerning the gift of life we have been given. “Human life is grounded in three funda-
mental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor and with the
earth itself. According to the Bible, these three vital relationships have been broken,