Ash Wednesday – C
March 5, 2025 8:30am
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton
“…Searching for the Soul”
A Jewish rabbi named Naomi Levy has written a book called Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul.
In one part of this book, Rabbi Levy shares an insight that may be helpful for us as we begin Lent. It is about looking back on our lives, either to the far past or the near past.
Rabbi Levy says that we may experience the nagging feeling that we have messed up part of our life. Or that we have been missed part of our life and been asleep at the wheel.
Rabbi Levy says that when we take the time to look back on our lives, we may find ourselves regretting two types of sins. And here is where her insight is especially pertinent for us today.
Things Done and Things Not Done
First, there are the sins we committed, the things we actually did. I lied or I was impatient or I looked at unwholesome Internet sites.
I cheated on my work time with my employer, or I treated an employee unfairly. These are things we have done and wish we had not done.
Then Rabbi Levy says that the second type of sins may be tougher to deal with. These are the things we haven’t done.
There is the apology we never made or the forgiveness we didn’t offer, and the person is now deceased. There are the thoughtful words we never spoke and the helpful things we never did and could have done.
So, we look back and we see that we have messed up some things and missed other things in our lives. We feel regret and the question is: is there something we can still do to repair what we have done or not done?
Lent
Well, I suggest that the nagging voice that we may hear about all of this is God’s Spirit within us.
It is God calling us to the Lenten desert, moving us to repair our lives. It is God wanting is to confront the things we have done and now regret and the things we haven’t done that have left us feeling incomplete.
So, let’s make this Lent a time to go into the desert of our hearts. Let’s put ourselves in the quiet of God’s presence.
Let’s try to find a way to resolve the things in our lives we have done badly and the things we have not done and wish we had done. Let’s allow our practices of prayer or fasting or charity lead us into this desert and through that to a springtime, which is the meaning of the word Lent, a springtime of fuller life with myself and with God.
