The Inner Room

Gospel Reflection for Wednesday, March 5, 2025: Ash Wednesday

The Light of the World, Public Domain

Today we hear the familiar gospel for Ash Wednesday. Here, Our Lord extolls the practices of Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. Last year, I wrote about the need to do these things in secret, as that is where the Father sees them so that we do not get puffed up with pride. You can find that here.

This year, I want to focus on a specific passage on prayer. By no means should we be setting aside fasting or almsgiving, but there is a special priority that ought to be given to prayer in our lives. Truly, fasting and almsgiving ought to come from a heart of prayer. Our Lord teaches us today:

"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” Matthew 6:5-6

The aspect that I want to focus on is this inner room. I think many times when we hear this passage, we may immediately think of the inner room of our house. Perhaps it is our bedroom or maybe a family room that we have set aside for prayer. Certainly, these are fitting places to sit and to pray but Our Lord is not speaking of a physical room in a house in this passage. In reality, He is speaking about the inner room of our soul. The interior life is often compared to a dining room in a house or a castle. It is our interior room that we occupy when we turn away from what is external, and are left to our own inner thoughts.

When we have turned inward, we begin a dialogue with the inner man. Our spiritual life dictates who this inner dialogue is with. For those who have not yet cultivated an interior life, this dialogue is almost exclusively with the Ego, that is, themselves. As the person begins to follow the way of perfection, they slowly move from dialogue with self to dialogue with God. It is here that we encounter this scenario that Our Lord speaks of in today’s Gospel.

We are to retreat from the outside world and move inward to the inner room of our soul. It is there that the bridegroom will come knocking:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

He stands at the door of our hearts and seeks to enter with us. The problem comes when we are either exclusively preoccupied with the outside world or when we do become internal, we are so preoccupied with our own Ego that we do not hear the bridegroom knocking. It’s as if He is at the door but there is so much noise in the house that the knock cannot be heard.

And so, He is left outside.

Today begins the great season of Lent. This is a season that is given to the church so that the faithful can shut themselves off from the noisy distractions and return to that inner room. Once the noise has died down, we will be able to hear the knock at the door. He desires to enter our inner room and to dine with us. Allow this season to be a turning away from the Ego and a welcoming in of the bridegroom. Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we strip from ourselves inordinate love of created things and are left with a purified focus on He who has loved us first.

Go into your inner room. Close the door. And dine with the lover of your soul.

I pray you have a fruitful Lent.