Homily
for Ash Wednesday
5 March 2014
5 March 2014
And
so, my brothers and sisters, we find ourselves returning to the desert with
Jesus for these next forty days. The Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and
almsgiving that we will be engaging in are to be not simply the same things we
give up year after year because that is our tradition. Rather, what we
sacrifice this Lent should be something which causes our metanoia, our conversion from our selfish ways of living back to
the way of the Lord.
The
reason for this metanoia, this
conversion, is given to us in the Opening Collect – or Opening Prayer – for today’s
Mass: our battle against spiritual evils. This season of Lent is our annual
time of battle against the way in which the Devil continues to assault us,
tearing us away from our relationship with God with the temptation to sin. Our
actions of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are to be the wielding of our
spiritual weapons as we face down the foe who wishes to destroy us. When done
correctly – that is, when done with the right intention and purpose –, our metanoia becomes the greatest weapon and
shield in our spiritual arsenal, for it is created out of those blessings and
graces which keep us close to God.
Pope
Benedict XIV once said: “The observance of Lent is the very badge of the
Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of Christ. By it
we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we
gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly
help.”
My
brothers and sisters, Lent is not simply that time “to be a ‘good Catholic’” by
simply giving something up, going to the local fish fry, throwing an extra
dollar in the poor box, or coming to an extra Mass here or there. If we believe
that this is what Lent is all about, then we’re completely missing the mark on
why we engage in our three Lenten practices; we miss the mark about why we use
this time to truly “take up battle against spiritual evils”; we miss the mark
on why we answer the call to metanoia
in the first place.
In
our readings today, we hear some of the finest reasons that we not only
celebrate Lent, but that we also enter into this time of conversion, this time
of metanoia. Joel reminds us that we
are to “return to [the Lord] with [our] whole heart”, and that we should be
rending our hearts, and not our garments. Paul, in his Second Letter to the
Corinthians, noting that “we are ambassadors for Christ”, urges us to “be
reconciled to God” and “not to receive the grace of God in vain.”
Yet
all that we will sacrifice this Lent and all that we will do as acts of
self-discipline is to be done in secret, as Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of
Matthew. Our conversions are not to be something that is “showy” or “flashy”.
We should never try to out-do anyone in our sacrifices; we should never promote
our piety, lest people look upon that piety as self-serving instead of self-denying.
Another
reason we keep our Lenten practices secret is because each person in this
church today knows that every other person in this church is a sinner. We all
have our spiritual battles to face, and no one’s battle is more significant
than another’s. Each one of us is tempted by the Evil One in ways that are, though
universal in some, distinctly unique to who we are as individuals. What,
then, are our weapons for spiritual battle? Our weapons are the weapons of
self-restraint: the Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving,
ultimately leading to that weapon by which our Faith is identified: the Sign of
the Cross.
And
so we come today to be renewed by that sign which claimed us as a member of
Christ’s Body on the day of our Baptism. Just as the priest or deacon made the
Sign of the Cross on our foreheads and invited our parents and Godparents to do
the same, so now we come forward to proudly wear the sign formed in ashes which
commits us to our metanoia, and not
just only on this day or throughout the season of Lent, but for each day of the
rest of our lives.
The
ashes we wear today are not to show people that we’re “good Catholics.” The
ashes we wear today are a personal reminder that the journey we begin today is
a journey of conversion that lasts not forty days, but each day for the rest of
our lives. The ashes we wear today are a personal battle cry against the
attacks of the Devil. Yet the encounter we have today with our Lord, Crucified
and Risen, in Word and Sacrament is that encounter which sharpens our weapons
for battle and is that which is the clarion call for our metanoia.
My
friends, as we begin our Lenten season and Lenten observances this day, our
Lord beckons us to join in the spiritual battle for our souls – a personal
battle which must play out on the battlefield of our hearts . . . a personal
battle which ought to convert our heart and our very self to become more like
Christ each day.
If
we are to take our Lenten observances seriously, if we are to take the
practices of fasting, prayer and almsgiving seriously, if we are to take our
spiritual battles seriously, and if we are to take our metanoia seriously, then the ashes we wear today will be that
battle scar which we wear proudly; the ashes we wear today become that wound by
which we are made stronger; the ashes we wear today become that invitation to
live more fully the mysteries of our Faith; the ashes we wear today become that
symbol of hope of the joy that comes once our sufferings are fulfilled.
Grant, O Lord,
that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so
that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons
of self-restraint. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and
reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Amen.
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Enjoy the journey . . .
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