March 5, Ash Wednesday C (Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)
Isaiah and Matthew invite us into deeper solidarity. None is well until all are well.
When I look into the bowl containing her ashes and bone fragments, I think not of death so much as of my own sense of failure. The woman I grew up with like a sister died after two decades of opioid addiction. The first time she overdosed, I was there to call an ambulance. The last time, we were estranged, and she died alone. Irrational as it is, some part of me might always be convinced that I could have saved her.
It’s no surprise that my mind goes from ashes straight through mortality to the ways we fail each other. Prior to this loss, when I held a bowl of ashes it was to mark crosses on foreheads as we confront the ways we’ve all fallen short. While our stories vary, we have sin in common.
The opioid crisis could be a great common cause in our society. It crosses the rural-
urban divide and afflicts suburban areas too. People of all levels of income, from those without housing to multimillionaire celebrities, have died of overdoses.
