Homily for Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:12-18

Ps 51

2 Cor 5:20-6:2

Mt 6:1-6; 16-18

The imposition of ashes marks the beginning of Lent, our 40-day procession through a season described as penitential.

Besides being penitential, a time during which we acknowledge and atone for our sins, Lent should also be transformational.  Any lenten discipline we choose, should effect how we live our faith for the rest of the year, not just during the season of 'give ups.'   We can see the roots of Ash Wednesday in the first reading from Joel.  He called for an assembly. He decreed a fast as part of a liturgy.  Blow the trumpets.  Gather all the people. 

As in those ancient times, we come together today to listen to the word of God.  We gather to receive the ashes that remind us of our mortality and call us to undergo a change of heart so as to live more closely in accord with the Gospel.  We are assembled here to receive the Sacred Body and Blood of Our Lord whose passion, death, and resurrection we will recall and celebrate at the end of these forty days. 

Lent isn't just for “give ups” of the usual suspects: smoking, chocolate, beer, desert, meat, and so on.  It is a time of taking on: taking on time to meditate on the Gospel, time for spiritual reading even for just a quarter-hour per day, for taking time to attend Mass one or two additional days per week.

Rather than focusing on 'give ups' lent is a time to heed the advice of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, foundress of the Visitation Order of nuns,  “We cannot always offer God great things but at each instant we can offer little things with great love.”  

Offering little things with great love may be a more difficult mortification than giving up desert and beer for the next forty days, if not for life.

Lent is a time to heed the advice of St. Clement from this morning's office of readings:  “. . . be humble, putting aside arrogance, pride and foolish anger. . . . Be merciful, so that you may receive mercy. . . . Forgive, so that you may be forgiven.  As you treat others, so you will be treated . . .” 

There are two formulae for the imposition of ashes. The first reminds us of our common mortality: “Remember, thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.”

The second is advice for living: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospels.”

As we begin this holy season of Lent we are called to meditate on the first and to live according to the second. 

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The photo below is from Ash Wednesday several years ago when I was living at Campion Center in Weston, MA.  I was the celebrant for the Ash Wednesday Mass.  Went into the chapel a bit early to check on the ashes etc.  The ashes and holy water had been set up by someone else.  This just screamed to be a black and white photo.  So it is.  

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD