Benny towards Lent

“On three things the world stands,” thus says the wisdom of Israel, “on Torah, worship and loving deeds” (Pirkei Avot 1:2). The renown Italian rabbi Ovadiah Bartanura, would interpret this as follows:

“On Torah – if Israel had not received the Torah, I would not have established the rules of heaven and earth,

On worship – the sacrifices, for thus is said in Tractate Taanit (27b) “without the classes of priests there would be no heaven and earth. We can learn that because of the sacrifices offered up by Noah, the Holy one blessed be He swore that he would not bring another flood on the earth – thus the world stands on sacrifices

On acts of loving kindness – as it is written (in Psalm 89) “the world is built on hesed (loving kindness). Acts of loving kindness include rejoicing with bridegrooms, comforting mourners, visiting the sick, burying the dead, etc” (source here).

Today is Ash Wednesday and it is the tradition of the Church to read the renown section from chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus – our teacher and our Lord – reveals the heart of life as children of God, in a chapter that is in the center of a long and complex discourse at the beginning of his mission in Galilee.

One possible resume of that discourse is: “on three things stand repentance: acts of loving kindness, prayer and fasting”. These three elements are not necessarily the foundations of the world, however they are essential conditions for each person seeking to correct his way and repent before God his Father.

If we compare the two trios, we can easily see that the order of the words has been reversed and that Jesus’ words begin with the element that appears last in the trio in Pirkei Avot.

It would seem that everything begins with the invitation to leave behind a self confinement in which the human person might find himself, wrapped up in himself, not able (or even apparently not willing) to see the other or to hear about his needs. Acts of loving kindness free him from the slavery of egoism and open him to a new way to the world and to the other. As it is written in the Book of Isaiah: “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday” (Isaiah 58:7-10).

The first step is strengthened by prayer, another motivation to come out of oneself for an encounter that is no less important: the encounter with God. By means of prayer, the human person is able to renounce useless speaking, adopting simple words but listening more and thus he is able to communicate with God in heaven who sees even that which is secret.

Prayer, after all, joins together the creation with the Creator, yet also reveals the human person to himself, purifying his heart and healing his soul.

Up to this point, Jesus proposes to his auditors and to his disciples two steps that take the human person outside of himself, where the self is not at the center. The third instrument, on the other hand, is related to the individual’ to what he can do with himself and with his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit and the place in which he can give praise and glory to God and sacrifice suitable offerings – that being fasting.

Only after breaking open the doors to the world and to God, can the penitent human person deal with himself, asking his body to sacrifice: not at the beginning of the process but rather at its end, for fear that he might justify himself and forget the other. Everything must be done gratuitously, without self importance – this is condition that Jesus emphatically stresses as the essential background to every act. Thus Jesus says about those who are seeking honor among others, “their reward they already have”.

To repent is to go on a journey homewards, to open the doors of the heart and to start walking on a long and not always known path. The one leading us on this path is the Holy Spirit, leading us through the desert but with certainty.

May we have a blessed fast during Lent!