We know the power of fire to destroy, to blacken and to reduce to ash. We know that evil can do the same - destroy our wholeness of spirit, blacken our lives and reduce the beauty of human life and our good intentions to so much dust.

We begin Lent in the ash of acknowledging our own part in harbouring, creating and doing evil and those places in our hearts where the fire of anger, bitterness and selfishness has left nothing but dead, cold ash.

The ash is also a reminder that our true life is not found in mortal things which eventually turn to dust, but in eternal things which keep giving life.

We know that out of ash new life can bud, grow strong and bloom into fullness. That’s what our Lenten journey is about: allowing God to draw life out of us once again.  

The Gospels of the first two Sundays in Lent give us a kind of ‘road map’ for our journey. It is a journey away from temptation (this Sunday) and towards transfiguration (next Sunday); away from making ourselves the centre of our lives and towards making God and neighbour the centre of our lives.

In Lent we allow ourselves to be tempted out of the ash of selfishness and narrowness of heart and into a life of open-hearted goodness at the service of others; a life in which the goodness of God can be seen and felt.

That’s what it means to ‘repent and believe the Good News’.