Ash Wednesday
Here is Lent, Our Favorable Time
Today we begin our forty days of Lent, forty days of preparation for Easter. Why these forty days of penance? To return to our roots — to God, to our better selves — and consequently also to our neighbor. In many ways we have tried to be our own gods, to decide for ourselves what is right or wrong, and we have ended up by making ourselves the center of the world at the expense of ourselves, of God and of neighbor. Now is the right time to return to God and to turn to the people around us. We express our brokenness and our readiness to change when, after the Gospel, we receive the ashes.
Reading 1 Jl 2:12-18
But there’s also this, it’s not too late—
God’s personal Message!—
“Come back to me and really mean it!
Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!”
Change your life, not just your clothes.
Come back to God, your God.
And here’s why: God is kind and merciful.
He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot,
This most patient God, extravagant in love,
always ready to cancel catastrophe.
Who knows? Maybe he’ll do it now,
maybe he’ll turn around and show pity.
Maybe, when all’s said and done,
there’ll be blessings full and robust for your God!
Blow the ram’s horn trumpet in Zion!
Declare a day of repentance, a holy fast day.
Call a public meeting.
Get everyone there. Consecrate the congregation.
Make sure the elders come,
but bring in the children, too, even the nursing babies,
Even men and women on their honeymoon—
interrupt them and get them there.
Between Sanctuary entrance and altar,
let the priests, God’s servants, weep tears of repentance.
Let them intercede: “Have mercy, God, on your people!
Don’t abandon your heritage to contempt.
Don’t let the pagans take over and rule them
and sneer, ‘And so where is this God of theirs?’”
At that, God went into action to get his land back.
He took pity on his people.
God answered and spoke to his people,
“Look, listen—I’m sending a gift:
Grain and wine and olive oil.
The fast is over—eat your fill!
I won’t expose you any longer
to contempt among the pagans.
I’ll head off the final enemy coming out of the north
and dump them in a wasteland.
Half of them will end up in the Dead Sea,
the other half in the Mediterranean.
There they’ll rot, a stench to high heaven.
The bigger the enemy, the stronger the stench!”
Reading 2 2 Cor 5:20—6:2
Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.
Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,
I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help. Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped.
Gospel Mt 6:1-6, 16-18
“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.
“When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.
“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat?
“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
“When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don’t make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won’t make you a saint. If you ‘go into training’ inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn’t require attention-getting devices. He won’t overlook what you are doing; he’ll reward you well.
Prayer
God our Father,
you know how often we try to go
our own selfish ways.
Do not allow us to live and die
for ourselves alone
or to close our hearts to others.
Help us to see ourselves and life
as gifts from you.
Make us receptive to your word and your life
and make us grow in the mentality
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18
“To Listen” and “Do not be afraid”
Today we enter the gracious season of Lent. The Word of God calls us to be intimately united with the Lord. This intimacy with the Lord should manifest an abundance of charity! And so, we hear: pray in private; give alms in secret; and fast with brightly anointed head. The Church encourages us to live these three spiritual attitudes in the Lenten season in exclusive union with God.
In his Lenten Message for this year, Pope Francis makes two proposals to bring in a transformation in our lives. The first proposal is “to listen” (Mt. 17:5) to the voice of Jesus. Attending daily Mass may not be a possibility for many of us. So, he urges the faithful to study the Word of God even with the help of our modern gadgets, and listen to the voice of the needy brethren.
The second proposal of the pope is “not to take refuge in a religiosity made up of extraordinary events and dramatic experiences, out of fear of facing reality and its daily struggles, its hardships and contradictions.” Listen to the voice of Jesus telling us, “Rise, and do not be afraid.”
Therefore, Lent calls on us to face struggles and pains with courage. We are called to go up with Christ to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a place of rejection, sufferings and death but it is also the place where Jesus will rise in glory. We are invited to walk with the Lord, even if it would mean to experience sufferings and death. But, we are promised of a joyous resurrection, individually and as a community.
Therefore, these days of penance are intended to help us to return to our origins—to God, to our better selves—and consequently also return to our neighbour. Often times we have tried to be our own gods, to decide for ourselves what is right or wrong, and we have ended up by making ourselves the centre of the world at the expense of ourselves, God and of neighbour. Now is the right time to return to God and to turn to the people around us. We express our brokenness and’ our readiness to change when, after the Gospel, we receive the ashes.
In this Lenten Season, let us commit ourselves to transform our Lenten observances into a “full, active and conscious participation” in the passion of the Lord through our attentive listening to the Word of God and through our works of charity, prayer and fasting with courage.