It was so great to see so many people coming out to St. Anthony’s and at Manhattanville College for the “Day of Dust” otherwise known as Ash Wednesday!  Now that the “dust” has settled and our Lenten journey is underway, we have an opportunity to look at our life in the light of Christ to see if we are truly living the First Commandment:  I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.  God is saying that we have to make Him FIRST in ALL things.  This is not meant in the spirit of a child (or adult?) pushing everyone out of the way to be first online before tickets are sold-out. This is not God being selfish.  It’s not God saying to forget or reject everyone and everything else.  I remember when I was quite young being confused by the Gospel reading, regarding discipleship in Matthew’s Gospel: “ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”  After all, I was thinking, I love my parents very much, second to none!  What does all of this mean then? 
 
Ash Wednesday reminds us that without God we are nothing…as insignificant as dust.  We must admit, however, that there have been times when we have been living or acting as if we are independent of God.  Perhaps we may simply see God as the one who got things going (watchmaker) but now that we are here, we no longer need Him.  God is more background or back-up…there when and if I need Him, like a fire extinguisher we keep in the car for emergencies…someone or something good to keep around the house.  Hardly sounds like a relationship right?!  This scenario makes God (like some people in our lives?) simply there to serve our needs.  This picture has “me” at the center with everything and everyone revolving around my needs, my comforts, my plans, and my pleasures.  Everything I do or say is filtered by a “what’s in it for me” attitude.  This is the perfect recipe for an empty, unfulfilled, and unhappy life.
 
Something interesting happens, however, when we put God in the center.  Just like beautiful artwork and paintings in a museum illuminated by the light in the center of the room, in a similar way, we are only able to recognize the beauty and dignity of our loved ones when God is at the center of our lives.  Or, like smoldering embers that when brought near a roaring fire glow brighter and burn stronger, so to, when we approach God in prayer, in His Word, in one another and/or in the sacraments of the Church our hearts burn within us with deeper peace and greater joy.  Making God first is a way of bringing everyone and everything in our lives into God’s love and light in a way that allows us to recognize the greatness of one another and ourselves.  Without the light, without God, without His Word, without His Wisdom…we live in darkness.  Our Lenten desert experience of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, allows us to recalibrate our life…to recognize what changes we have to make to keep God in focus.  Perhaps this first week of Lent we can ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate those areas of our life where we haven’t quite allowed Him to be God.  In this way we will not only be able to share in the joy of Easter at the end of Lent but in the joy of heaven at the end of life. 
 
In prayer,
 
Your local shepherd,
Fr. Tom
 
P.S.  If you would like an early Easter experience…call or stop by anytime for confession!