ASH WEDNESDAY                            

Introduction: We are invited this season of Lent to re-examine our lives, seek God’s grace and be renewed. Within ourselves we want to create a humble and contrite heart and also the assurance that we are loved by God. We want to be reconciled with our neighbour, be concerned for the salvation of others, practise self-denial and help the poor and needy. Let us live out this conversion in our daily lives: at home, at work, in the neighbourhood.

It is a season for the humble; it needs courage to be humble and to confess our sins.                             

                                                                             

            HOMILY: Today we begin the season of Lent, a time of preparation for the joyful celebration of Easter. As you contemplate the next forty days, how do you feel? A little gloomy perhaps, or daunted at the idea of spending time in repentance and giving up things that you like? If that is how you feel, then try looking at it from a far more positive angle; try looking at it as another opportunity to reflect on your life and coming closer to God – after all, that is what matters. Just tell yourself, “I want God in my life. I only want to love God.” You will soon feel far more joyful; your very body will be lightsome.

The key to Lent is itself found in the meaning of the word “lent.” “Lent” is an old English word for springtime. It comes from the same root word “length”. Do you see the correspondence between “lent” and the lengthening of the days of springtime? So the word “lent” is bound up with the concepts of growth, new life, sunlight, and fresh flowers, like the mango blossoms.

The words the priest used to say on marking our foreheads with ashes, “Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust shalt thou return”, are now replaced with the exhortation, “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” We are being called in this Lenten season to turn again to our compassionate and merciful Father. As Joel tells us, the Lord is “all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness and ready to relent.” We should be filled with confidence in this mighty God who though all-powerful reveals himself as ready, even eager to forgive us our transgressions. In fact it can be argued very credibly that God shows his greatest greatness in his desire to forgive us and draw us close to him. Thus our prayer, fasting and almsgiving are penetrated with gratitude for God’s love and salvation, not only with the spirit of penitence. Repentance is nothing more abstruse than awakening to God’s love for you. God loves you, and you know it: that’s all there is to it.

            Many people see repentance as a rather forbidding and negative idea.

But instead of focussing on sin, why not rejoice in the good things that happen to us by God’s grace? First and foremost, let me say that there is nothing morbid about admitting our sin; it is simply accepting the truth about ourselves. When we see our sins and realise we need forgiveness and healing, we turn to Jesus and he helps us. What could be more beautiful than turning to Jesus? It is repentance that leads to new life and the joy of knowing that our sins are forgiven.

The question to ask is, “How is God calling me to grow in my Christ life? What must die within me in order to ensure a springtime of renewal?”  Lent is widely associated with giving up things like chocolates and cigarettes. There may be merit in this, but we can find deeper forms of renunciation. Remember what Jesus said about murder and adultery. We must not only avoid these sins externally, but also cleanse the internal attitude underlying these sins – the disposition of anger and hatred, for instance.

What we are dealing with are the deeper issues of spiritual renewal within us, and the penances we undergo should be the symbols or symptoms of the growing reality within.

Is God calling me to a deeper environment of interiority? Then I must break away from superficialities and silly talk. If God is calling me to greater patience, my mortification will be dying to my demands to be served in a hurry. Is God calling me to an indiscriminate forgiveness of others and the humility of asking for forgiveness? Then I must free myself from oppressive anger and hatred or prejudice, low levels of empathy, an excessive focus on oneself, since in order to forgive and ask forgiveness I must be free. I need to examine if God isn’t calling me to greater generosity in my work and ministry; for my death and resurrection, my penance needs to be leaving sloth and egoistic self-seeking behind. Is God calling me to a closer union with him?  Then I must free myself from all attachments to creatures, human and material. And if God is inviting me to a greater peace in him, I must put aside the anxiety that oppresses and prevents me from opening up to the freedom of supernatural faith. We can decide that we shall not allow our thinking and lifestyle to be dominated by the ways of this world.

At a given moment of his ministry, Jesus recommended fasting as the means of expelling certain types of evil spirits. He said explicitly, “Such demons are driven out by prayer and fasting.” Why? Because fasting dissolves the trammels that tie down the self. Once the self gets out of the way, God is free to act in us and through us in order to establish his rule. Our bodies become spirit and light so that we can follow Jesus’ advice to go into our room, shut the door and spend time with him, in prayer. As we do this, we will find the power to resist our sinful inclinations, and to reach out to others in love and service. And as for those of us who are obliged to fast, let us remember that fasting lets God into our lives; or, rather, more correctly, it allows God to take over our lives without let or hindrance.

When we accept penances with this attitude, death and resurrection, mortification and renewal, occur simultaneously. Lent is spiritual springtime, the heart and goal of which is growth, the purpose of its mortification is new life, its spirit of denial is gain.

PRAYER:        My dearest Lord, take my small offering of self-denial this Lent, as a sign of my great longing for you. I hunger for your presence in my life, and I thirst for your love. I hunger for justice for those who are wronged and oppressed, and I thirst for your peace. I hunger for a glimpse of your glory, and I thirst for your stillness in my heart. God of giving, God of longing, God of pain, I hunger for you.

                    

Dust and ashes touch our face,

Mark our failure and our falling.

Holy Spirit, come,

Walk with us tomorrow,

Take us as disciples,

Washed and wakened by your calling.

Take us by the hand and lead us,

Lead us through the desert sands.

Bring us living water.

Holy Spirit, come.

-         Brian A. Wren

PRAYER OVER THE ASHES

Life-giving God,

We thank you for creating us out of the dust of the earth,

And breathing your life into us.

May these ashes be to us a sign that life is

More than our physical bodies,

And that our hope of eternal life depends,

Not on our merits, but on your mercy alone,

To which we turn now,

In sorrow for our sins,

And with the trust of children.

-          t