Who Am I? Here Am I!

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, bringing upon us my favourite time of the year: Lent, leading to Easter. I didn't grow up observing Lent, but over the past five years it has become the most meaningful time of the year for me. It is a time of repentance and renewal. It is the advent of springtime. Orthodox liturgy points in this direction: The Springtime of Fast has dawned, the flower of repentance has begun to open.

Indeed, as Orthodox archbishop and author Kallistos Ware says: "Repentance - metanoia, 'change of mind' - is not just ashes, but an opening flower." I love the simplicity and profundity of that statement. Lent lasts for 46 days, and culminates on the day of our Lord's Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Below is an excerpt of archbishop Ware's writings* on Lent:

'Lent has, therefore, a fundamentally baptismal orientation, which we often overlook and which we need to retrieve. The Lenten Fast is an annual opportunity for us to reflect afresh on the centrality of baptism in our Christian experience, and a call for us each to renew our baptismal promise ... '

'It is an invitation to reaffirm, not just through words but through actions, our rootedness in baptism as the foundation of all our Christian life; it is a season of self-exploration during which we become actively conscious of the indwelling presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit that exists 'secretly' or 'mystically' within our hearts from the moment of our baptism.'

'At the same time, Lent is more than that. As well as renewing my own baptismal commitment, I need also to ask myself: what am I personally doing to bring others to faith and baptism in Christ?

... whether we are clergy or laity, each is to see evangelism as her or his direct responsibility. What am I myself doing to preach the gospel 'to all nations'? ... We are to ask ourselves: What have I done since last Easter to communicate this light to others?

'Lent, then, is about baptism and mission. It signifies a reawakening of our baptismal initiation, a revivified missionary dedication. It is to say both: 'who am I?' and 'here am I.' Recalling our identity as baptized Christians, we ask ourselves: who am I? And, responding to Christ's missionary command, we affirm with the prophet (Isaiah 6:8): here am I.'

_____

Excerpt taken from Archbishop Ware's essay, "Lent and Consumer Society".