By Sister Therese Dougherty, SSND
The opening words of our Ash Wednesday liturgical readings call us all to lament: “Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments and return to the Lord your God.”
Reflecting on these words, I am reminded of Bryan Massingale’s call to women religious in his keynote address at the August meeting of LCWR.
He called us all not only to grieve the loss of the familiar in our personal lives and in our congregations, but to lament and grieve the brokenness of our world and allow grief to inspire action for greater justice.
Lent is a time to take note of what is not right in our personal lives, but it is also an invitation to lament so much that is wrong in this world that seems to be crumbling around us.
To lament our current world situation is not simply to weep.
To lament is to feel deep compassion for all the vulnerable in our human family and in non-human creation.
To lament is to feel deep compassion for those who know the pain of real poverty or of abuse because they are different in race, religion, ethnic background.
To lament is to know anger at the destruction of forests, and the pollution of air and soil and water because of human greed.
Lamentation calls for action.
In this Jubilee Year of Hope, Lent is a time to do what we can to stand up for what is right and just in our broken world.
Whether alone or with others, we can and we must act.
We know that, in Blessed Teresa's words, “Unity alone makes us strong within and without; unity makes us indestructible.”
Have a blessed and fruitful Lent.
