On the way home from Mass on Ash Wednesday, a young boy asked his mother, "Is it true what the deacon said, Mommy, that we are made of dust?"
"Yes, darling."
"And do we go back to dust again when we die?"
"Yes, dear."
"Wow!" said the boy. "When I was looking under the bed for my shoe this morning, I think I found someone but I don't know whether they are coming or going!"

In a few minutes when you get ashes on your forehead, the minister will say, Repent and believe in the Gospel. Most of you are old enough to remember the older formula: Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.

I remember being very happy when we started using the current formula , as opposed to the older one because I always felt that the exaggerated emphasis on ashes or dust and our sinful nature, and mortality made it harder for people to really understand and celebrate Lent. While Lent is a penitential season, it is most fundamentally a baptismal season. For those being initiated into the Church at the Vigil on Holy Saturday it is a time of proximate preparation for their Baptism, Confirmation, and first Eucharist. And for those of us who are already baptized it is a time to reclaim our baptismal grace, and our baptismal mission.

Every Sunday we join with the presider in renewing our baptismal promises by reciting the Creed. On Easter, we use the baptismal formula to make it even clearer that this is what we are doing every Sunday. For those of us who were baptized as infants, our parents and godparents were asked to profess those promises after being solemnly asked if they clearly understood what they were about to do. As adults, every renewal of our baptismal promises is implicitly preceded by that same solemn question: do we clearly understand what we are about to do. Lent is a 40 day opportunity to reflect on that question, and to come through Lent to that Easter moment willing and able to give a resounding Yes!

So this Lent, I pray that we don't just go through the motions by giving something up or going to Mass a little more frequently but to immerse ourselves into those Lenten practices of praying, fasting, and alms giving so we might come to a deep understanding what our Baptismal mission is, and after renewing those promises, we are able to use the grace of Baptism to live them.

Immediately after his baptism, Jesus was led in to the desert to spend 40 days preparing himself to carry out his baptismal mission of proclaiming the Gospel, not just by speaking it but by how he lived, and therefore bringing the Kingdom of heaven into a fuller reality. Our baptism calls us to that same mission. This Easter, let us individually and as a community, emerge from our Lenten journey ready to say yes to our baptismal promises and to live out our mission. Doing both of those things as if the salvation of the world depends on it. Because it does. May you have a Blesseed Lent!