Ash Wednesday
Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; (Joel 2:12-18)
Year in and year out, the Lenten season commences and invites us to become closer to Christ by reflecting on his passion, his passionate care for others, and his ardent relationship with God.
Despite this clear invitation, Christians will often look for something to “give-up”. An exercise in self-denial that in some way is meant to cause deeper reflection on the life of Jesus and his last 40 days. Well-meaning folk will be giving up chocolate, coffee, beef and pork and occasionally miss a meal or two.
While the self-denials can be often easily observed, the deep reflection is often ignored. Scripture calls us back to God even now; especially now; despite our absence, despite our distractions, despite our sinfulness, even now God calls us back to our kinship.
Today’s reading beckons for us to return to God.
“Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.”
Even now… and especially now, despite the condition of the world, from the Middle East to Eastern Europe to East St. Louis, and yes, even in Washington DC, our God invites us closer. This Lent, let’s fast with a purpose. As we deny ourselves our luxuries, meals, or confections, let’s be deliberate in connecting the relationship of the suffering Christ with those who struggle from famine, war, and violence.
In our Lenten prayer this year, let’s consider those outside our usual comfort zones: those across the tracks, those across town, those dealing with the risk of unemployment and declining healthcare, and those victims of poor and selfish public policy agendas. In remembering them in this season, we should form a special bond and common humanity. May we share that from which we have denied ourselves to help relieve the pain and suffering of those who can see no hope. The Lord says, “even now."
Author: Ralph McCloud is the past director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an anti-poverty campaign at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He retired after 16 years there and over 35 total in active Church Ministry.
Prior to his time leading CCHD, he worked as the Division Director of Pastoral and Community Services in the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas. He has served as President of the National Association of Black Catholic Administrators and as a board member for the National Black Catholic Congress, the Roundtable Association of Social Action Directors, and the Center for Migration Services of New York. He is the current Chair of the Catholic Mobilizing Network.
Ralph has received numerous awards, including the Courage Award from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (2009), the History Maker Award from the Archdiocese of Atlanta (2009), Catholic Charities USA’s Martin Luther King Keep the Dream Alive Award (2010), and the Bishop John Joseph Keane Medallion from the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies from the Catholic University of America (2017). In 2024, Pax Christi USA bestowed its Eileen Egan Peacemaker Award on McCloud, an honor the organization last granted in 2010.
McCloud is on the Leadership Group for the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. He is a Fellow of NETWORK Lobby and a member of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Washington, D.C., where he serves as a lector and member of the Finance Council.
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