Lent is supposed to re-propose for today the forty years that Israel spent in the desert by leading the believer to know himself, that is, to know what the believer’s Lord already knows: a knowledge that does not consist of psychological introspection, but that finds light and orientation in the Word of God. Just as Christ fought for forty days in the desert and overcame the tempter thanks to the Word of God (cf. Mt 4, 1-11), so the Christian is called to listen, to read, to pray more intensely and more assiduously – in solitude and in the liturgy – the Word of God contained in Scripture. Christ’s struggle in the desert, thus, becomes truly exemplary, and the Christian, combating idols, stops doing the evil that he is in the habit of doing and of doing the good that he does not do! In this way emerges the ‘Christian difference’, that what constitutes the Christian and renders him eloquent in the company of men, what enables him to show the Gospel lived, made flesh and life.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this propitious time of Lent and is characterized, as its name proclaims, by the imposition of ashes on the head of the Christian. This is a gesture that perhaps is not understood today, but which, if it is explained and received, can become more efficacious than words in transmitting a truth. Ashes are the fruit of fire that burns, it implies the symbol of purification, it is a reference to the condition of our body, which after death decomposes and becomes dust: yes, just as a leafy tree, once it is cut down and burned, becomes ashes, so our body return to earth, but those ashes are destined for the resurrection.