Ash Wednesday ’Your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.“Jl.2,12-18 Ps.50 2 Co.5,20 à 6,2 Mt.6,1-6,16-18”Your Father who sees all that is one in secret will reward you." ’Your Father who sees in secret will reward you’ Jesus came to save us from the abyss od despair that lies within us. The ’secret of the heart’ establishes us in God’s Heart and it is here that w e are always going to dwell. Wishing good is something that is inherent in our being. Holiness is something that every human being’s heart aspires to. This aspiration becomes more and ore intense when Jesus calls, it is Jesus who becomes our way. To reach him he proposes fasting, prayer and alms. Our path towards holiness is opened by Jesus who knows all the dimension s of our lives in interaction with other people. It is in inner silence offered to us that we have the choice to change our way of living. In faith, learning from Jesus, from his Merciful Love, we find our freedom once again. What is hidden in our hearts and that w e don’t know about, what is hidden to ourselves e can find it and feel it. This Light and this Love coming from God sets us free. It is a movement of letting go for us, coming away from our illusions and guilt. No longer seeking our ’glory’. We need to do things for themselves, respecting their reality. And so we find the sincerity of our gestures by not trying to be considered when it is a question of fasting, prayer and sharing. If we want to find a hidden object we ought to penetrate right down to the depths where it is hidden and then we shall find it.   “When you are fasting, do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do : they go about looking unsightly to let people know they are fasting.”In truth I tell you, they have had their reward."  The secret is that place where our being expresses itself in different ways. Jesus suggests we live outside of other peoples’ gaze. He proposes we live outside of our own gaze. And so our heart can act whilst always remaining in the perspective that God Our Father has. Becoming sensitive to Him, He beings to act from Himself alone. In this way our heart finds a space where it can allow itself to be in a different way. Discovering the intimacy of God’s Love has us open up to what is promised for us.  God dwells in the desert of our heart. In the secret of the Father, I am there, he speaks to me of the silence of his Love.  We open ourselves up to the Word of Jesus who indicates a new attitude for us, to go into the secret of the Father so as to discover the true Source of our identity. Our identity is born out of the Secret of our relationship with God.   “When you are fasting, do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do : they go about looking unsightly to let people know they are fasting. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward. But when you fast, put scent on your head and wash your face, so that non one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees alt hat is done in secret ; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.”  ’Your Father is present in secret’  We take into account this new space where we distinguish the respectful presence of Another. When we come to a darkened place, our eyes discern, bit by bit, the contours of another reality. We have a unique experience of the relationship with another that is infinitely delicate and which speaks to us once more of the Word of Love we have already heard. It is the Promise of Love taking form within us. And sow e need to close the door on ourselves, renounce through will all else that would not be this secret of Love. The secret of the Infinite Love of God the Father is revealed in Jesus. We can be reconciled with God and present to Him the abyss of the sufferings of our humanity. Henceforth we are the ’ambassadors’ of Christ for all those who are in these abyss of despair. At one end of our lives we live the distress of the world, at the other end we live from God’s infinite Love.  Already we feel joy for these forty days which are given to us in order to enter even more into this Love given to us and in which we are loved. And so we take on just how God’s Infinite Love saves us. We enter into the victory of the Saviour of the world’s Love over death, over hatred and over sin. We ask for the grace to enter into the Passion of Jesus as witnesses of God’s Infinite Love. “And when you pray, do not be like hypocrites : they like to stand in the synagogues and at crossroads so everyone can see they are praying. Amen I say unto you : they have received their reward. As for you, when you pray, go into a secret place, close the door and pray your Father in secret; your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Ash Wednesday

“Your Father sees in secret.”

Jl. 2,12-18 Ps.50 2 Co.5,20 à 6,2 Mt.6,1-6,16-18

“Be careful not to parade your uprightness in public to attract attention; otherwise you will lose all reward from your Father in Heaven. So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you ; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogue an din their streets to win human admiration.In truth, I tell you, they have had their reward. But when you give alms, your left had must not know what your right had is doing ; your almsgiving must be in secret.”

Once again we are seeking the path of holiness, and to each one of us and to us all together, a new situation is being offered to us in our relationship with Jesus.

Jesus knows what the dimensions of our everyday life are, as we are in interaction with others whilst remaining in the silence of our inner life.

What is offered to us is the opportunity to change our way of living in the situation such as it is presented to us.

We are summoned together in Church in holy assembly to get ready to live Easter : Jesus came to save us from the abyss of despair that is in us, and in the heart of so many people, taking upon himself all the forms of our distress!

He who did not sin, became ’sin’ for us! God identified Himself with the sin of mankind. This is the ’secret of the heart’, the place where we constantly dwell. In faith, we try to get on to the level of the heart of Jesus and of his Merciful Love. This is what is hidden in our hearts, what we do not know, it is hidden to ourselves and we are going to find it and feel it.

“And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites : they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and in the street corners for people to see them. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward. But when you pray, go ypo your private room, shut yourself in and pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your father who sees all that is done in secret will r reward you.”

Our belief is that another Person is there, speaking to us and addressing words to us. We are sincerely waiting for something new, we are waiting for it all together. The same goes for us all. We can open ourselves up in a renewed way to the Word of the Lord Jesus. In fact, Jesus indicates a new attitude for us to take, which consists of going in the direction of what is secret in us, thus discovering the true sources of our identity. Our true identity is the one which is born in the Secret of our relationship with God. It is a movement of letting go, of withdrawal from our illusions, it is in fact a question of no longer seeking one’s own “glory”. Doing things for themselves, in respect of their reality, finding the sincerity of our gestures once more, no longer seeking to be considered around fasting, prayer and sharing. Whoever wants to find a hidden object has to penetrate deep down to dig it out, and when he does find it too will be hidden.

Your Beloved Bridegroom is the hidden treasure in the field of your heart, this treasure for which the wise merchant gave all his goods.

“When you fast, do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do : they go about looking unsightly to let people know they are fasting. In truth I tell you they have their reward. But when you fast, put scent on your head and wash your face, so that no one will know that you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret ; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.”

So we need to close the door on ourselves, that is, willingly renounce all things : ’you pray your Father who is in the secret.’ The secret of the Infinite Love of the Heart of God our Father is made manifest in Jesus. We can be reconciled with God and we can present to Him the abyss of the sufferings in humanity. At one extremity of our life we live in the distress in the world, and at the other extremity we live in the Infinite Love of God.

Faced with the cry of humanity, we come in aid to our brothers and sisters in prayer! Seized by the cry of humanity resounding in us like an abyss, it is God Himself who does in fact make an appeal to us to pray ’in secret.’

We already quiver with joy over these forty days given to us, so that we may go even further into the Love by which we are loved. Touched by this Love in our very beings, we are able to appreciate the distress of our brothers in

humanity, and so we realise the extent of God’s Salvific Infinite Love . We enter into the victory of Our Saviour’s Love over death, hatred and sin.

We ask for the grace to enter into Jesus’ Passion as witnesses of the Infinite Love of God.