Ash Wednesday 2008
Ash Wednesday
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Welcome to the season of Lent.
There are two special features about this year’s Ash Wednesday; first of all this will be the earliest Ash Wednesday we have had for the past twenty years. The second is that it is a Leap Year Ash Wednesday. We are starting today the forty days of preparing ourselves for the great feast of Easter. Forty is an important number in scripture. In the time of Noah it rained for forty days and forty nights. The Children of Israel after being brought through the waters of the Red sea wandered for forty years in the wilderness because of their unfaithfulness toward God; Moses went into the cloud and up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights before returning with the Ten Commandments. Prophet Elijah fasted forty days. And finally, Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days before being tempted by the devil.
Take the example of an empty container .If God wants to fill our heart; you and I need to empty everything that is there which will kill that sanctifying grace. That is why Prophet Joel said tear not your garments but that which cover your heart; that which dirty your mind. God means to fill each of you with what is good; so cast out what is bad! If he wishes to fill you with honey and you are full of sour wine, where is the honey to go? The vessel must be emptied of its contents and then be cleansed." So this is the time for emptying our heart for making place for God.
On Ash Wednesday, the Church signs our foreheads with the cross, in ashes, and says, “Remember, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” Diamonds may be forever, but you and I definitely are not. The things we have, the goals we accomplish, our personal relationships, even pain and pleasure, had a beginning not that long ago, and they will end. In the words of a song, “Is That All There Is?”
For us believers the good news of Jesus Christ is that our living and dying are not all there is. There is a new meaning for us in Jesus, in our life in him.
When parents send their children to school, they want them to learn the basics: how to read, write, and work with numbers. With those three skills - reading, writing and arithmetic - a child can succeed in this world. Today Jesus gives us the three basics in order to succeed spiritually, that is, to attain a relationship with God. The three basics are prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
We are called to conversion, to a turning away from our own special idolatries and a turning toward the true God in Jesus Christ. That’s the meaning and purpose of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three traditional Lenten practices of Catholics.
Of the three basics, prayer has first place. To use a human comparison: If you desire friendship - that is, a relationship with another human being - you have to do things together, be in each other’s presence, talk...and listen. The same applies in our friendship with God. As Jesus says, don’t do it for show – so that people will think what a spiritual person you are – but to grow in your friendship with Jesus. Prayer draws us to listen to God and respond.
The second basic practice is fasting. The goal of fasting is not to have a sleek body one can be proud of. Don’t think that heaven’s door is a narrow door. Some saints were quite corpulent, others were virtual skeletons, but they had this in common: They practiced the voluntary self-denial of fasting. We need to say “no” to some of our distractions and indulgences, so that we are freer and more attentive to say “yes” to God as he meets us in our lives, especially through others.
Finally, we come to almsgiving. St. John Chrysostom said that after we have satisfied our own basic needs and of those we are directly responsible for, all the rest belongs to the poor. We have to give not by human standards, but according to God's generosity. Almsgiving is the practice of giving to others needier than ourselves, especially at the cost of some sacrifice on our part. Some people decide to abstain from something and fast but they keep and save that money for buying some expensive things that they were craving for. This is not fasting. You have to give out all what you save from your Lenten observances.
Joel’s call for the people to repent even after they are already adorned in sack cloths and ashes and fasting and weeping and mourning is a call to repent and rend their hearts, not their clothing. It is a call to turn, to refocus, and to set their minds on a different path.
What is the turning he invites? Perhaps it is not so much a call to turn away from, as much as it is a call to turn toward. Perhaps not so much a call to give up or reject, but to reclaim and embrace. Perhaps it is an invitation to remember our interconnectedness and God’s desire for relationship, rather than separation and alienation.
When we are able to do this kind of turning with our hearts, we are perhaps more likely to experience Lent as the little boy who overheard a young priest practicing his sermon in the pulpit on Saturday evening. The small boy sat in the back of the church, watching the priest who was so serious in the church full of empty pews. It struck him as funny and he started to laugh. Hearing laughter, the Priest said: “Don’t you know that we don’t laugh in church during Lent?”
“Why?”
“Because Lent is a time when we remember Jesus died for us.”
“Is Jesus dead?”
“No Jesus died, but he didn’t stay dead. He arose from the grave and is living in you and me right now.”
The boy thought for a moment and replied: “I think… I think it must have been the Jesus alive in me that made me laugh.”
Because Jesus lives in us, the laying on of ashes need not be only a heavy reminder of our sinfulness, a reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return. The anointing of ashes can serve as a hopeful reminder of God’s interconnectedness with us and our interconnectedness with each other and our ability to find healing, strength, peace, hope and justice through and in each other if we are willing and able to trust in God’s healing and abiding peace with us.
The ash cross on our foreheads reminds us that soon, very soon, you and I will return to dust. How do you want to use the time God has allotted to you my dear brothers and sisters!
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Welcome to the season of Lent.
There are two special features about this year’s Ash Wednesday; first of all this will be the earliest Ash Wednesday we have had for the past twenty years. The second is that it is a Leap Year Ash Wednesday. We are starting today the forty days of preparing ourselves for the great feast of Easter. Forty is an important number in scripture. In the time of Noah it rained for forty days and forty nights. The Children of Israel after being brought through the waters of the Red sea wandered for forty years in the wilderness because of their unfaithfulness toward God; Moses went into the cloud and up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights before returning with the Ten Commandments. Prophet Elijah fasted forty days. And finally, Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days before being tempted by the devil.
Take the example of an empty container .If God wants to fill our heart; you and I need to empty everything that is there which will kill that sanctifying grace. That is why Prophet Joel said tear not your garments but that which cover your heart; that which dirty your mind. God means to fill each of you with what is good; so cast out what is bad! If he wishes to fill you with honey and you are full of sour wine, where is the honey to go? The vessel must be emptied of its contents and then be cleansed." So this is the time for emptying our heart for making place for God.
On Ash Wednesday, the Church signs our foreheads with the cross, in ashes, and says, “Remember, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” Diamonds may be forever, but you and I definitely are not. The things we have, the goals we accomplish, our personal relationships, even pain and pleasure, had a beginning not that long ago, and they will end. In the words of a song, “Is That All There Is?”
For us believers the good news of Jesus Christ is that our living and dying are not all there is. There is a new meaning for us in Jesus, in our life in him.
When parents send their children to school, they want them to learn the basics: how to read, write, and work with numbers. With those three skills - reading, writing and arithmetic - a child can succeed in this world. Today Jesus gives us the three basics in order to succeed spiritually, that is, to attain a relationship with God. The three basics are prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
We are called to conversion, to a turning away from our own special idolatries and a turning toward the true God in Jesus Christ. That’s the meaning and purpose of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three traditional Lenten practices of Catholics.
Of the three basics, prayer has first place. To use a human comparison: If you desire friendship - that is, a relationship with another human being - you have to do things together, be in each other’s presence, talk...and listen. The same applies in our friendship with God. As Jesus says, don’t do it for show – so that people will think what a spiritual person you are – but to grow in your friendship with Jesus. Prayer draws us to listen to God and respond.
The second basic practice is fasting. The goal of fasting is not to have a sleek body one can be proud of. Don’t think that heaven’s door is a narrow door. Some saints were quite corpulent, others were virtual skeletons, but they had this in common: They practiced the voluntary self-denial of fasting. We need to say “no” to some of our distractions and indulgences, so that we are freer and more attentive to say “yes” to God as he meets us in our lives, especially through others.
Finally, we come to almsgiving. St. John Chrysostom said that after we have satisfied our own basic needs and of those we are directly responsible for, all the rest belongs to the poor. We have to give not by human standards, but according to God's generosity. Almsgiving is the practice of giving to others needier than ourselves, especially at the cost of some sacrifice on our part. Some people decide to abstain from something and fast but they keep and save that money for buying some expensive things that they were craving for. This is not fasting. You have to give out all what you save from your Lenten observances.
Joel’s call for the people to repent even after they are already adorned in sack cloths and ashes and fasting and weeping and mourning is a call to repent and rend their hearts, not their clothing. It is a call to turn, to refocus, and to set their minds on a different path.
What is the turning he invites? Perhaps it is not so much a call to turn away from, as much as it is a call to turn toward. Perhaps not so much a call to give up or reject, but to reclaim and embrace. Perhaps it is an invitation to remember our interconnectedness and God’s desire for relationship, rather than separation and alienation.
When we are able to do this kind of turning with our hearts, we are perhaps more likely to experience Lent as the little boy who overheard a young priest practicing his sermon in the pulpit on Saturday evening. The small boy sat in the back of the church, watching the priest who was so serious in the church full of empty pews. It struck him as funny and he started to laugh. Hearing laughter, the Priest said: “Don’t you know that we don’t laugh in church during Lent?”
“Why?”
“Because Lent is a time when we remember Jesus died for us.”
“Is Jesus dead?”
“No Jesus died, but he didn’t stay dead. He arose from the grave and is living in you and me right now.”
The boy thought for a moment and replied: “I think… I think it must have been the Jesus alive in me that made me laugh.”
Because Jesus lives in us, the laying on of ashes need not be only a heavy reminder of our sinfulness, a reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return. The anointing of ashes can serve as a hopeful reminder of God’s interconnectedness with us and our interconnectedness with each other and our ability to find healing, strength, peace, hope and justice through and in each other if we are willing and able to trust in God’s healing and abiding peace with us.
The ash cross on our foreheads reminds us that soon, very soon, you and I will return to dust. How do you want to use the time God has allotted to you my dear brothers and sisters!
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