Ash Wednesday
 Listen to Bishop Cliff's Ash Wednesday ReflectionDear Friends,
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built.” Luke 6:47-48
When I was growing up in Sunday School, we had a song (with actions of course) that we sang about this passage. “Oh the wise man built his house upon the rock....” and we were thrilled when the part of the song came where the rains came down and floods came up and there was a tremendous crash at the end. Perhaps it was my nine-year-old self that particularly enjoyed the crash and the actions that went with the crash that makes it so memorable for me.
We are living in a time where the certainties of our lives have all been upended. I probably don’t need to remind you of all the geopolitical turmoil. A simple hockey game between the US and Canada became a litmus test of fury and loyalty. I am old enough to remember a time when “Soviet Union” and “Eastern bloc” were sureties on the world stage. But that was 34 years ago now. Who could have imagined the topsy-turvy world we now inhabit? Stabilities that we have counted on have been overturned and the bedrock of our civilization for the last 100 years has been found to be quicksand. As a nation, Canada has been informed that where we had counted support and co-operation, there is now a breach of trust. Europe, which has enjoyed 80 years of relative peace is now beginning to feel nervous about the shifting plates beneath their feet. They have lived through this before. Strange salutes from newsmakers have the very old among us remembering and feeling distinctly uncomfortable about having been here before. Who are our allies now? Where do we look for support?
Lent is, of course, our time of preparation for the coming Paschal feast. We are meant to prepare ourselves through prayer, fasting and alms-giving and take stock spiritually of the life we are leading. So in what way has the change in the world around us changed the outlook for Lent? The levels of anxiety and stress in people are palpable. The concern over the economy or tariffs or Ukraine or the cost of living or the housing crisis or food security or any other number of factors has people on edge. Into this uncertainty we may have public figures who would otherwise never be tenable leaders step forward with quick and easy answers. We must at all costs resist the temptation to those quick and easy answers.
I think we need to repent of all the things on which we have built our confidence which have turned out to be sand and not bedrock. As long as we are sitting in bewilderment at the world we are at a disadvantage to react as Jesus would have us react. As long as we sit and mourn the old and accepted alliances and ways of doing things that have given us in Canada our confidence on the world stage--we are less able to respond to the developing authoritarian impulses. So we need to be, like the old Sunday school song I referenced above, wise enough to build our hopes, our confidence and our future on Jesus Christ and no other. In Christ we know that compassion is not weakness, and cruelty is not strength. In Christ we know that we are called to reach out to those in need--not with judgment, but with love. In Christ we are moved, not toward authoritarian easy answers, but toward the hard work of guarding the dignity of each child of this planet as bearing the image of God.
We certainly need to pray! This is the center of our life in Christ and it is prayer that can feed all the spiritually healthy things that contending with the powers and principalities will require. We have been comfortable in our pews for decades, and for the first time in many years we must face the storms which are currently brewing in the world. We need prayer as the currency of the Kingdom of God, and we need to spend it liberally on one another and on the world which is so wrapped in turmoil.
So, perhaps having girded ourselves with prayer we might consider fasting from fear this Lent. Pray and then fast from worrying. Rest in the eternal promises of the Saviour and then recognize that anxiety has been too much a feast of late--and we need to cut back on our consumption of panic.
If we are to address the world around us, and recognize that chaos is being used to keep us off balance, then we must hold that much firmer to the love, compassion and transforming grace of Jesus Christ. For then we shall not be moved from the safety of his promises or cut off from the future he has made for us. In doing so, we will show the world that we contend with these times with hope born of faith--that the true Master of all will bring his will to completion and that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord.
I wish you a peaceful and holy Lent.
Yours faithfully, Bishop William G. Cliff
XIII Bishop of Ontario
OFFICES OF THE INCORPORATED SYNOD OF THE
DIOCESE OF ONTARIO:
165 Ontario Street, Suite 4&5 | Kingston | ON K7L 2Y6
(613) 544-4774
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