On Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, the Church reminds us of three acts that, more than practices of piety, have to do with our human nature and the values or attitudes that every human being should cultivate.
Almsgiving is more than just giving a few bucks to a beggar on the street; it refers to our attitude towards others. It encompasses everything we do for them, our charity, our solidarity, our service.
It also has to do with the second commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. Saint Basil used to say in this regard: "The bread you have left over and keep in your cupboard is not yours, it belongs to the hungry; the clothes you don't wear and keep in your closet aren't yours, they belong to the naked."
I must love my neighbor as myself because we are brothers and sisters, children of the same Father in heaven, and because we are brothers and sisters, we are equal. Equality and fraternity, proclaimed by the French Revolution, are in reality one value because as the proverb says: "Love is either born between equals or it makes people equal". Let us remember the principle of communicating vessels: if two vats containing an unequal volume of water communicate with each other, the water level in both will become equal.
Prayer is more than just reciting prayers; it refers to our attitude towards God. It means walking in his presence (Genesis 17:1). It expresses our gratitude for all that we have received from him; it is also an unequivocal manifestation of our indigence and dependence in the sense that without him, we are nothing and can do nothing (John 15:5).
Prayer is communicating with God; we communicate with God because we love him; if prayer is an act of love for God, it also has to do with the first commandment, which tells us that God must be loved with all our heart, with all our mind and with all our strength (Deuteronomy 6:5). That is, in our minds and hearts there must be no rival; God must be loved above all things, nothing and no one can come to be his equal.
Going back to the French Revolution, this attitude corresponds to the value of Freedom. We are only truly free when we love God above all things and all people, that is, when we do not idolize realities or people, or create dependence on things or substances. By manifesting our sole and exclusive dependence on God, by acknowledging him as the only Lord and by loving him above everything and everyone, we ascend above all creation, we do not pay allegiance to anyone or anything; in other words, we are truly free.
We conclude, then, that praying and almsgiving, as the gospel proposes, are more important than they seem at first glance. To pray is to love God above all things, the first commandment of God's law, and the most unequivocal manifestation that we are free, because by cutting ties, with everything and everyone, we serve one Lord. To give alms, to share, is to love our neighbor as ourselves, the second commandment of God's law, and the most unequivocal manifestation of equality and social justice: the other is equal to me and I am equal to the other.
Freedom and Equality are the two principles on which human life is based, both individually and socially. Freedom is the value on which the life of the individual is based as a unique, autonomous, independent and self-validated being; Equality, on the other hand, is the value on which the life of the individual as part of a community is based.
The difficult harmony between these two values can only be achieved when they are exercised or practiced in the context of love. We are free when we love God our Father above all things and people, and we are equal when we love, as ourselves, the other children of the same Father God, and therefore our brothers and sisters.
But the gospel reading for Ash Wednesday proposes yet a third act for the whole of Lent: Fasting. What is the purpose of fasting and what does it have to do with praying and giving alms?
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC