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Mohandas Gandhi, the famous Indian freedom fighter and certainly one of the most influential personalities of the twentieth century, was born into a working-caste family in 1869. After he completed his initial education in India he went to England and entered law school. With his degree in hand Gandhi returned to his native land in the mid-1890s but was unable to find a fulfilling position. He received an invitation via a friend to go to South Africa to practice law, but more especially to be an advocate for the small Indian community there which was suffering discrimination at the hands of the ruling class. He accepted the challenge, went to South Africa, and in the process discovered his vocation. For twenty years Gandhi led the drive of the Indian people to achieve dignity and their rightful place in society. The tools he used to achieve his desired end were not those of a typical emancipator. He chose non-violent protest, civil disobedience, as his chief weapon. Dialogue and negotiation, respect, even love were additional tools he used to achieve his goals. He developed a whole system of non-violent protest which he called satyagraha or truth-force. His alternative methods were successful; the people reclaimed their dignity and took their rightful place in South African society.

In 1914 Gandhi again returned to India. World War I had just erupted on the European continent. England, India's overseer, was fully involved in the worldwide conflict and at this time Gandhi supported its efforts. After the war, however, things changed. In 1919 at Amristar over 300 Indian nationals were ruthlessly and senselessly murdered by British soldiers as the people peacefully protested England's domination of their country. The incident galvanized the attitude of the people and it changed Gandhi's opinion of the British and their presence in India forever. For the next 25 years Gandhi led India's drive for freedom from the British. As with his campaign in South Africa, the tools Gandhi used were different than any revolutionary leader before him. He substituted words for bullets, offered respect in place of hate, and promoted the use of marches and civil disobedience in place of armed aggression.

Mohandas Gandhi suffered a great deal because of his alternative approach. He fasted on several occasions, sometimes for many days, to alert the world to the plight of his people. He was incarcerated by British officials many times totaling more than six years. Yet, ultimately in 1947 India gained its freedom. The might and grandeur of the British Empire had been brought to its knees by a little, almost unnoticeable man, and it was done without one bullet being fired. It was a different approach, not one which society valued, but it was effective in achieving its end. Although Gandhi led his nation to freedom, his life was sacrificed. In January 1948, only a few months after the British exodus, Gandhi was felled by an assassin's bullet as he walked to prayer. The man of peace was silenced by one calculated act of violence.

Today we begin the discipline of Lent, our annual journey from the wilderness of the desert, to the wood of the cross, and finally to the freedom of the empty tomb. As Gandhi led the Indian people to freedom using alternate tools, ones not well respected by society, so the Church leads her people to freedom, and the methods used are not conventional.

The prophet Joel wrote to the Hebrew people after their return from fifty years of exile in Babylon. The people knew what it meant to return home physically; it was now time for them to return in spirit, to come home to God. Joel first speaks of the need all people have to return to God. In our hearts and minds we must make the turn away from the world and toward God. Before the journey can begin in earnest we must set our direction straight.

The tools needed for our journey home to God are different than those required for a more conventional trip. The prophet first says that we must fast. Fasting requires us to discipline ourselves, a necessity for the journey which we begin this day. We deny ourselves some of the pleasures of food, as did Jesus in the desert, to remind us that this is a special time of preparation. Fasting, however, is more than self-denial; it is also the discipline of acceptance and accommodation. The liturgical environment will change, as will our weekly celebration in our church, in order to remind us of the journey we begin. Some people do not like change, even for short periods, but through the discipline we develop in fasting we gain the strength for acceptance.

Joel next tells us that we must rend our hearts -- we must seek reconciliation. When Jesus told the parable of the Prodigal Son he spoke of reconciliation as a journey which requires us to achieve forgiveness on three levels. First, we must learn to forgive ourselves. The younger (prodigal) son realized that he had done wrong and that his return home was the only answer. His ability to find reconciliation within himself allowed him to seek the forgiveness of others. The older brother, unfortunately, gives us a negative example of his inability to forgive others, which is the necessary second step in our reconciliation journey. Like a weak link in a chain which snaps and destroys the chain's usefulness, so the elder son's inability to forgive stunts the process of reconciliation. The younger son, however, does achieve reconciliation with his father, whose forgiveness has been present from the moment the boy made the decision to return home. Joel challenges us to begin this process of reconciliation in our return to the Lord.

The prophet also encourages the people, and we who live today as well, to assemble, pray as a community, and begin to change. We come to church; we gather as God's people today to start our journey to freedom. We walk this sometimes windy and treacherous road armed with the gifts of God, unconventional by the standards of the world, but mightier and of greater assistance than anything the world can provide. On Ash Wednesday we gather as a Christian community in prayer to initiate our preparation for the paschal mystery -- the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord.

Our ultimate goal of freedom, which the empty tomb brings, can only be achieved by our preparation now for the journey which follows. Certain signs will guide us in our use of the special tools of fasting, reconciliation, and prayer which Joel gives us today. Ashes, made from the burnt palms of last year's Passion Sunday celebration, are placed on our foreheads as a sign of where we have come from and where we will one day return. This sacramental act also helps us to see that we must "repent and believe in the Good News." The color purple is used in our liturgical environment also to remind us again of the journey we begin and its central message of reconciliation. We are in a time of preparation for the freedom which only God can give; thus our celebration is somewhat subdued. In this way we can learn more about the power and symbolism of silence.

Freedom is an elusive goal. We live in the United States as free people governed by a democratic system of laws, yet in certain ways, possibly without our knowing, we are chained to the world as assuredly as a prisoner is shackled to iron bars. The world says that the solutions to conflict, disagreements, and the myriad of human problems can only be found in the answers which society provides. Human solutions can provide a respite and temporary relief, but they cannot bring us to true freedom. It is only through death and our return to God that we will truly be free. We need to make this forty-day journey with Jesus, as he walked, prayed, and fasted in the desert. Our tools for the trip are unconventional -- reconciliation, fasting, and prayer, but like those used by Mohandas Gandhi in his fight for freedom for his people, the tools given us by God will achieve their purpose of preparing us fully for the Easter mystery. Let us, therefore, begin the journey from the desert, to the cross, to freedom. It is a challenging mission but its ultimate goal -- eternal life -- is worth our best effort.