Ash Wednesday
Lectionary: 219
Reading I
Jl 2:12-18
Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.
Blow the trumpet in Zion!
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, “Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land
and took pity on his people.
Responsorial Psalm
51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17
R. (see 3a) Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
“Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.”
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Reading II
2 Cor 5:20—6:2
Brothers and sisters:
We are ambassadors for Christ,
as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Working together, then,
we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says:
In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.
Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
Verse Before the Gospel
See Ps 95:8
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
Gospel
Mt 6:1-6, 16-18
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“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.
“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
There is a difference between being humiliated and being humbled. Being humiliated is when someone forcefully shames someone or makes them feel foolish especially in front of some else. It becomes a moment of embarrassment and causes psychological trauma. When this happens it is not something that is quickly forgotten. The emotional scars last a long time. It can also affect someone’s personality and personal relationships in a very negative way. Being humiliated is an awful, traumatizing experience. On the other hand, being humbled or mumbling oneself is usually a voluntary lowering of one’s importance and stature. Regardless of a person’s position in society or in a person’s own opinion the act of humbling oneself brings a person lower while it simultaneously lifts other people higher. It is an act of self-sacrifice and it also removes a person’s pride. As Christians we are constantly reminded that we should humble ourselves daily and put the interest and concerns of other people before our own. Jesus Christ did this for us and, in turn, we are encouraged to follow His example in our daily lives.
Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. For the next forty days we will be humbling ourselves daily as we are encouraged to examine our relationship with Jesus Christ, our sins, our faults, and our brokenness in relation to our God. As Jesus Christ humbled himself in our humanity we too are asked to humble ourselves by embracing the Crucified Christ and emptying ourselves of all of our pride, arrogance, selfishness, and lowering ourselves below all those whom we encounter while on this journey. To approach Lent correctly we need to make ourselves the last of the last and strip ourselves of all worldly things that just might get in the way of a relationship with Jesus Christ. We are journeying towards God and an encounter with the Resurrected Christ. To get to that goal a road of darkness awaits us which will take us on a journey filled with physical, mental, and spiritual challenges.
The physical challenges are encountered through fasting and abstinence. Many Christians only eat one meal per day during Lent from the rising of the sun to its setting with the meal being consumed at sunset. Eating is a purely natural function that is necessary for a person’s survival. It also offers pleasure and comfort. Giving this up in the form of fasting is a sacrifice made to God and a form of prayer. Whenever the pangs of hunger are felt a prayer is then offered up to God. Christ gave everything and in turn we are encouraged to make a sacrifice of this sort to unite ourselves with the Crucified Christ and partake in His suffering. For those who wish to offer something else up to God in sacrifice instead of fasting many Christians opt to give up something that is enjoyed for Lent: candy, smoking, alcohol, or something very personal in nature which has impeded a person’s relationship with God.
The mental challenges are encountered through keeping a focus on our faith instead of other things that might serve as a distraction during the Season of Lent. Television, video games, multi-media, and other forms of entertainment have become a large part of society and have taken a lot of time away from other things. In many cases this has led to less of a focus on many people’s faith and also the enriching of life through wisdom. Pushing out the mental stimulation created by a society that is structured around entertainment and self-induced fantasy creates a positive void that can be filled by understanding the world and God more through the pursuit of reading and learning. There is so much information that is just waiting to be pursued and imbibed by inquiring minds. There is nothing preventing a person from expanding their wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the universe. The season of Lent encourages this self-development and growth.
The spiritual challenges will always remain the most important part of Lent. It is where we are encouraged to deepen our relationship with Jesus and to pursue God in order to find Him. The Human Christ becomes the center of our lives and we are encouraged to get to know Him better. For most of our lives it can be argued that we all have taken our relationship with Jesus Christ for granted and now, during Lent, we are challenged to give this relationship the importance that it is due. This is accomplished through vigorous prayer, meditation, and religious observance. Wherever we are in our spiritual lives we are challenged to make it better.
The Prophet Joel gives us insight into what God wants from us. We are always called to return to a relationship with God regardless of what we have done or what we have failed to do. God simply asks us to ask for forgiveness, repent, and return to Him so that His love can heal us. As human beings, filled with pride, we tend to make things more difficult than they really are. We sometimes feel undeserving of forgiveness and instead continue to do what is wrong with some sort of self-justification which softens the realization that we should be doing better. To God saying we are sorry with a contrite heart is enough to repair the damage that we have done. Being forgiven and knowing we are forgiven then puts us in right relationship with God. Lent is a season of saying we are sorry, repenting, and being transformed. We are searching for and finding God on a continuous basis. It becomes a very personal affair and one that forces us to interact with God on an intimate level. Many of us are more comfortable with a distant God and one that we know only a little. God wants us to know Him a lot and to stop ignoring Him. Christ makes this possible through His personhood. He feels everything that we feel. He knows everything that we know. He has experienced everything through our eyes. We are no stranger to Him and He doesn’t want to be a stranger to us.
As Christian we begin the Season of Lent together with a great act of humility: the reason of the ashes upon our forehead in the form of a cross. The priest or deacon mutters the following words as the cross is traced: “Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It is a powerful reminder that everything on this planet has an expiration date including our physical existence. This means that if we focus then all that we are, all that we gain, and all that we produce also has an expiration date. What don’t have an expiration date is our soul and our relationship with God. It makes complete sense that as Christian we should be focusing on the eternal and not the material. Together we receive this cross as a remembrance of this before we go our separate ways to journey with the Crucified Christ towards the Resurrection and towards God. The journey will transform us into a new creation and one that will be better because of it. Through the Gospel Reading we have received final instructions and guidance from Jesus. It is with this reminder of humility in mind that we receive our ashes and go forward.
Deacon Tom
The purpose of Lent is to draw us closer to the Lord Jesus by thinking and meditating and praying about that part of His life that brought Him to death and then to the Resurrection. Truly all of his life was this same journey, but there are aspects of His life that are stronger in the journey.
One of those aspects is His preaching of conversion to all. By conversion, we do not need to think of changing from a life of sin to a better life. We do need to think of changing the heart so that it truly seeks God and not just religious practice.
The first reading, from the Prophet Joel today, speaks so clearly to this call of God to us: return to me with your whole heart, rend your hearts and not your garments! Yes, there is mention of fasting and weeping and penitential practice, but no matter what we do, if we do not do it with our whole heart, we are not seeking the Lord, but just serving ourselves and religious practice.
The Second Letter to the Corinthians today tells us: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
What is this reconciliation? It is never a matter just of doing the right thing. Reconciliation is bring two things together, bringing my heart together with the heart of God, putting myself into the heart of God.
So the Gospel of Matthew sums it all up: your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you. It is our hearts that the Father sees. We can fool everyone else, but we cannot fool God. May this Lent be a time of true conversion in our hearts so that we live for God and seek His ways and rejoice in His love.
CHRIST IN THE DESERT MONASTERY
My sisters and brothers in the Lord,
The Prophet Joel reminds us that we should rend our hearts and not our garments in the first reading today. Always there is a danger in Lent that we try to become spiritual athletes. Lent is not about becoming strong but about allowing our weakness to be penetrated by the Lord. The Lord is always gracious and merciful and wants our hearts conformed to His heart.
The second reading today is from the Second Letter to the Corinthians and reminds us to be reconciled to God! We want to be on loving terms with God always. God is faithful to us and we are not faithful to God. And so we need reconciliation. We should not be ashamed to be sinners—that is simply how we find ourselves in our human condition. On the other hand, God has offered us His life and we should take advantage of His offer. Lent is a time to listen to the Lord working in our hearts and in our world and seek a way to grow more deeply in His love and His purposes.
The Gospel today is from Saint Matthew and reminds us that we are seeking an interior reformation, not something to show off to others. What we want most of all is a deep aware of God’s love for us and to return God’s love to God with joy and gladness by loving others. It is this personal relationship with God that we seek, not the notoriety of being someone who is good or who helps everyone else. We can be good at many levels and help others at lots of levels—and never seek the Lord. We are invited in Lent to see God in all that we do and say and think.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip
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