REFLECTION:

On Ash Wednesday, we reflected on a simple image: a picture frame.

In photography, there are three basic steps. First, you pick the object. Second, you decide what story you want to tell. Third, you know your focus. What you place at the center of the frame determines the meaning of the image. The frame does not change reality — it changes what you see most clearly.

Lent invites us to do the same with our lives.

Each of us carries within us a quiet awareness of a gap — the gap between the person I am and the person I ought to be. The person I am today may struggle with impatience, distraction, pride, fear, or complacency. The person I ought to be is more generous, more prayerful, more patient, more centered in Christ. That gap can sometimes discourage us. But Ash Wednesday reminds us that the gap is not a cause for shame; it is an invitation to return.

The prophet Joel calls out, “Return to me with all your heart.” St. Paul urges us, “Be reconciled to God… now is the day of salvation.” And Jesus teaches us to go into the inner room — to seek a transformation that begins within. All three readings point to the same truth: Lent is about interior conversion. It is about allowing God to reshape the heart.

When we come forward to receive ashes, we hear the words, “Remember that you are dust,” or “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” The ashes traced on our foreheads form the sign of the Cross. That Cross becomes the frame of our lives. It reminds us that we are fragile, finite, and dependent on God. We are dust — and yet we are loved dust. We are unfinished — and yet we are held in mercy.

The Cross reframes everything.

It reframes our failures, because they are no longer the final word. It reframes our suffering, because Christ has entered into it. It reframes our identity, because we belong not to the world’s standards but to God’s love.

Lent is not about becoming someone entirely different. It is about allowing Christ to move back to the center. It is about choosing again what belongs in the frame. When Christ becomes the focus, the story of our lives begins to change. Slowly, quietly, faithfully — the person we are becomes the person we were created to be.

Growth in holiness is rarely dramatic. It is more like the slow rising of the sun than a sudden burst of light. It happens in daily prayer, small sacrifices, quiet acts of charity, sincere repentance, and humble trust. The journey from who we are to who we are called to be unfolds one step at a time.

As we begin this Lenten season, may we ask ourselves: What is at the center of my frame? What story is my life telling? Where is my focus?

And may the Cross traced in ashes remind us that our lives are meant to be framed by Christ — today, throughout Lent, and always.