Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

God doesn’t need to be reconciled to us. We need to be reconciled to God. St Paul doesn’t beg God to be reconciled to us but says to us: “be reconciled to God”.

God doesn’t turn from us; we turn from God. We want to dethrone and replace God, whom we see not only as a competitor but as an enemy. That’s at the heart of the Fall, the story of which is told in Genesis 3. According to the serpent, God is an oppressor who keeps the human being down. To realise our true potential, the serpent claims, we need to break free, and then we can finally be God. That’s the lie of evil, which turns the creature into God and God into a creature. That’s the original sin, underlying all other sin – the drive to divinise ourselves.

To be reconciled to God means that we stop trying to dethrone
and replace him, and accept that God alone is God and that
we are God’s creatures, dependent on him in every way. To
accept that truth is not oppression but liberation for the human
being; and it’s that liberation which is the goal of the prayer,
fasting and almsgiving of which Ash Wednesday and the whole
Lenten journey speak.

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