“Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. …” This is the summons from the prophet Joel that opens our Lenten season: “Return!” I couldn’t help but hear resonances from St. Bernard’s sermon 74 which we read in our Experientia program, only with an unexpected twist. In that sermon it was the soul crying out to her beloved to return. As St. Bernard put it, “When the Word leaves the soul, the enduring desire for him becomes a single, sustained cry of the soul, a single, sustained call of “Return” until he come.” The Word inspires this cry in the soul. But today, we have a reversal. It is not the soul, crying out for her Bridegroom. It is the Lord crying out to our souls and to the entire Church to return with her whole heart.
The entire Church needs to hear this call to return. Holy as she is, she has strayed on all too many occasions. At times she comes with all devotion to sit at the Lord’s feet and listen to his word; she comes to share in his table and receive the bread of life; she comes to care for the least of his sick and rejected brethren. But at other times she has gone away, committing scandals, faltering in her faith, her hope, and her love—indifferent to the face of her beloved. Think of some of the times you have received the grace of God in vain. But even then, the Lord does not cease to cry out, “Return to me with your whole heart…” His desire is to leave behind a blessing, for when sin increases, his grace abounds all the more. Let us confess this mercy. Let us rend our hearts in thanksgiving. “Return” is a good word for the Lenten journey we are beginning.
But return from where? Not from some physical distance but from the land of unlikeness. The visits of the Word are intended to re-form us in his likeness so that we might see him as he is. When we go away, it is because we are attracted to unlikeness. Looking at the truth becomes too embarrassing for us. It is easier to set our minds on things below rather than on things above. But how do we return? The prophet Joel gives us a hint: “Return to me with your whole heart…” Wholeness of heart is the grace of this season, bringing us back from a divided heart. Ask yourself this: Where is my treasure? A time of quiet prayer will tell us where our heart is. A period of sacred reading will poke a hole in our pretensions. We monks, especially, who have been called to fasting, to weeping, and to mourning on behalf of ourselves and others, how often have we strayed from our purpose? “Return to me that I may return to you” says the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, the prophet Joel concludes with these words today: “Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land and took pity on his people.” This is our hope. These ashes are a sign of our return. “For gracious and merciful is (the LORD), slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.”
