LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY mizliz)

...using its own vocabulary and concepts:

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. On this day when all Christians are enjoined to emulate Christ and undergo a 40-day period of reflection and penance, I invite Christian America to do just that. You wish to follow Jesus? Let’s begin.

Go ye into the wilderness and meet the demons of the desolate places. Leave the comfort of your climate-controlled homes and learn what it is to go without water or food. See those bleached bones? Do you imagine yours would look any different, or do you envision them as gold-plated? Climb up that mountain. The Prince of High Places is waiting for you. He speaks from his white mansion and spreads the bounty of the earth before you, if you will but follow him. Do you hear his voice? It’s telling you to trust him, to sanction his will, to do his bidding. Listen. War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Weren’t you supposed to go into all the earth and make converts of all nations? Maybe this is what was meant. Ask yourself your own question – what would Jesus do? Do you think he’d believe the Prince of Lies even if that Prince claimed to speak in Jesus’ very name? Would he sanction what you have sanctioned? Would he be tempted by the fear, the uncertainty, and the lust for power as you are being tempted? Would he yield to it? Do you truly want to follow Jesus? It’s time to look in the face of the lying angel beside you and realize that it’s not the Christ you say you believe in.

Shall you follow Jesus? Then repent. Repent of your pride, you arrogance, your Pharisaic bigotry and complacency. Shall we grind your nose into the mud and dust of misery, despair, hunger, oppression, war, hatred, death? Jesus knew all these things. Follow him and learn the darkness in your own soul. Do you think you are blameless? Sightless eyes gaze out from rubble world-wide, rubble you sanctioned as surely as if you had guided the bombs and the bullets with your own hand. Do you think you don’t need forgiveness for what you have done? So tonight, go to your churches, and be marked in oil and ash. And this year, maybe for the first year, consider what it means. When the greasy black soot is crossed upon your forehead, imagine how much the consistency resembles that of the flesh of children buried in flame from the skies, how much the ash is akin to the ash of death and destruction. The priest will say, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” That day is coming for you, as it is for everyone. Do you believe you will be held to judgment after death? If so, your repentance had better begin now. You have much to answer for.