Our society is one built now in the 21st century of hopelessness. We seem to have lost our spirit so professed in generations past. But Ash Wednesday is a day to be reminded we can again be people of hope. But this is only done through self-emptying, not self-filling. It is an enigma to think we can make a difference by being empty, but this is the way of Jesus.
To be people of The Way, a people in love with God, with our world, with each other, we must learn to be vulnerable not secure, learn how to love God with all we are in our emptiness, to be so in love with God the need for self-affirmation is deeply diminished. And so we follow Jesus through these 40 days into wilderness, onto the Via Dolorosa, to the foot of a cross.