Last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, was the first day of Lent. For the secular-minded person who has no interest in religion, it was just another day.

Importantly for Jamaica, it was a national holiday, and one can be sure that there are those who welcomed the opportunity to get some recreation or to catch up on certain activities they had long ignored. It was a day from the office and this was good enough for them.

For the more religiously inclined it was a time, perhaps, for self-reflection. This would have been particularly so if they professed faith in Jesus Christ and saw the day as an opportunity to examine themselves and the direction in which their lives may be going.

There are 40 days in Lent, culminating in the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus on Easter Day. One can be sure that people will not spend a great deal of this time on self-examination. The truth is that this is not an easy exercise to do if one should take it seriously. At any given time, we carry tremendous personal burdens that we would rather keep to ourselves. Taking time out to examine one’s life in light of the things that beset us, some plaguing us for almost our entire lives, is no easy task.

Yet, like David, when he was confronted by the prophet Nathan after having committed a grievous sin with Bathsheba, there comes a point at which we have to acknowledge our transgressions if we are to live a life of purpose. David knew he had done wrong in killing Bathsheba’s husband, the devoted and loyal Uriah, to satisfy his unruly affections for her. What he had done must have been gnawing at his soul even before Nathan came to him.

The good thing is that he did not use his awesome power as king to cover up his misdeeds. It was not just before man that he had sinned, but against God, and there was no way getting around this. Thus, he subjected himself to sackcloth and ashes and accepted responsibility for his actions. You can read the entire confession, remorse, and baring of his soul in Psalm 51.

You may retort that this is an ancient story rooted in myth, which has no relevance to life today. I wish it were that simple to dismiss. The more I read these ancient texts, the more I am amazed at the extent to which they mirror the experiences of people today. They speak to the human condition, and in every sphere of human activity, human beings remain essentially the same — corrupt, lacking in humility, driven by the need to exploit others for their own personal ends, and, yes, using other human beings as pawns in their desire for self-gratification in which the sexual impulse plays a significant role. Yes, there are good things on the other side of the ledger, such as kindness, empathy, and love for others, but to which side do we as human beings tend to gravitate the most?

We are living in a world where any public or even private acknowledgement of wrongdoing is becoming a scarce commodity; where people, even in high offices, will lie at the drop of a hat if it means saving their skins. There is a creeping death of shame whereby truth-telling is fighting for its life amidst the tangled web of deceit and half-truths that pass for social discourse.

We take out our anger and frustration on other people, hurting them in deep ways. As has become evident in intimate partner violence, we even beat and kill those we profess to love. As the Litany of Penitence for Ash Wednesday bears out, we have been uncharitable in our thoughts towards our neighbours and have been prejudicial and contemptuous to those who are different from us. Our insatiable appetites for worldly goods and comforts often lead us to exploit the labours of others, to despoil the creation rather than being its guardian as good stewards over that which God has entrusted us.

So, yes, there is need for repentance, for going in new directions that can bring greater meaning and purpose to our lives. I am not here advocating that people should or must become Christians. This is not an evangelistic column. It is rather an appeal for all of us to return to a moral sense of who we are in this created order. It is an appeal for humility; to recognise that we are but dust and to dust we eventually return. It is drawing strength from a recognition of our own mortality, something that should exercise our minds not just when we are approaching the golden years of our lives, but at every stage of life’s journey. I can cut the young some slack, but I am haunted by the evidence of too many young people dying too early, either as a result of self-indulgent and life-debilitating habits or from dietary intakes which lead to colorectal cancers, an emerging scourge among our young people.

Ultimately, the crisis from which most people suffer is a crisis of identity, of knowing who they truly are. Which is why a little self-examination from time to time is helpful. Often people fall not because they are weak but because they are uncertain about who they are. This is perhaps why the famed philosopher Socrates rightly said that the unexamined life is not worth living. We cannot expect to keep doing the same things over and over again and expect to get different results. There needs to be a seismic change in how we govern our lives. Those who are driven by the need to accumulate wealth without even thinking about the welfare of their neighbour, must recognise that it is not all that glitters that is actually gold. There are deeper things in life that makes for peace and happiness which are not too elusive to achieve if one wants to get them.

And it is not about indulging rituals, such as giving up things for Lent which you do not intend to abandon. If you think you have a serious drinking problem and you decide to give up alcohol during Lent, the period should be used determinatively as a way of gaining strength to give it up for good when the period ends. Returning to drinking with ferocity to make up for the lost days would be an insult to your own intelligence. The same is true of food and unwholesome thoughts that have wrecked your relationships with other people.

Let this Lent be a time of new beginnings for you. A new beginning with faith renewed and hope restored. A solemn and holy observance of Lent to you and yours.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He hosts a podcast — Mango Tree Dialogues — on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

Raulston Nembhard