Ash Wednesday (March 2, 2022)

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 2022-03-02 – ASH WEDNESDAY    __ Joel 2:12-18 __ Psalm 51 __  2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2    __ +Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 _

[_01_]      You are courageous. You are braver and more courageous than I. For many years, I had mixed feelings – mixed emotions – about taking a break in the middle of the day from my job,  my work, or my schoolday  for the Ashes.  That is, I was existing as a student or worker in a setting that was not religious  and then asked to enter a Catholic church in the middle of a weekday– i.e., Ash Wednesday - and returning to my work or classroom – which was not religious – with the ashes of Ash Wednesday on my forehead. Do I really want to do this?  Year after year, I was wondering: why can’t Ash Wednesday be on the weekend? Sunday?

Before I was in the seminary, I had these thoughts. This was all before I entered the seminary and began studying to be a priest. Spoiler alert: I graduated from the seminary and became a Catholic priest, assigned here by the archbishop. There is an official document around here somewhere, attesting  to this in his red Cardinal’s letterhead.

[_02_]      You are courageous. You are brave, not only braving the cold but willing to make the sign of the cross boldly on your forehead not only for your own salvation but also for everyone who sees you.

The person who sees you with your ashes and who will be moved might be your daughter – grandson -- neighbor, -- spouse – friend -- pizza delivery person – boss – co-worker.

Someone will see you. You are brave. I recall distinctly an Ash Wednesday when I did not feel brave enough to leave my desk and work environment to go to the church that was 2 blocks away on a city street where many people went on Ash Wednesday. Later, that A-W, I recall sitting in a conference room with one of my co-workers who had gone to church.

Now, that meeting took place 20-something years ago. I have no idea what the meeting was about, whether I even said anything. My only memory of the meeting is the image of the cross and ashes on my co-worker’s forehead. He was brave. You are brave.

His witness, his cross, made an impression on me across the table. In that regard, it was a good meeting!

[_03_]       Ash Wednesday, the season of Lent, the 40 days of Lent are a time of penance.

          What is penance ? It sounds like something bad, a punishment, such as a red card for soccer players who are being ejected from the match, or a basketball player who has just “fouled out” of the game. Is Lent, penance, just another form of “March madness”?

          Penance, however, is not being mad or sad or bad.

          From YOUCAT: “Penance is often misunderstood. It has nothing to do with low self-esteem or excessive scrupulosity  [should I explain scrupulosity?]  Penance is not about brooding over what a bad person I am. Penance frees and encourages us to make a new start.”

[_04_]        You are brave. You are courageous. You are making a new start in Lent.

          The Gospel of Ash Wednesday

reminds of 3 ways of living a penitential life – a life of penance – through ___ PRAYER, ___ FASTING, to ___ ALMSGIVING.

[_05_]     [Praying] is courageous; and if you do not feel “courageous” in your prayer, then courage is a good thing to pray for. I need to pray for this. Peter (apostle) himself, perceiving his own fragility and brokenness, begged, “Lord, increase my faith”

          In my own journey of prayer, one of my mentors encouraged me in a moment of indecision and uncertainty to go before the Blessed Sacrament/Tabernacle in church  to ask God to reveal to me “What is truly my greatest desire?”

          The question itself made me a little afraid – did I really want to know what my greatest desire was?

          It takes courage to pray – I have made that prayer many times since then. It takes courage to ask the Lord and to listen and thus to understand that the penance of prayer is not a punishment but push forward.

[_06_]        [Fasting] is courageous.

Fasting or the abstaining of something that is generally good for us – invites to re-set our priorities.

          I do not like to re-set my priorities and prefer to think that my priorities are already in order or that it’s somehow “works for me”

          Whether my current priorities actually work is not the point. The question – does God work in my life? Do allow God to work? When I fast, or when you fast or abstain from something, you are conceding more explicitly that God is in charge.

          To repeat my earlier analogy, Lent and fasting are not March-madness, but rather a new clarity and sanity.  It takes courage. [Eucharist Fast, Mass]

          Lord, increase our faith!

[_07_]        [Almsgiving]. Charitable giving is courageous.

          But, it calls me to recognize that love is not something I create but that I participate in. Love is not something you create, but participate in. First, through your birth, then your relationship with family, loved ones. You learned to love even before you knew what “learning” or “knowing” was.   In other words, you learned that you could love without being made to love, because you and I have already been made for love for the purpose of love.

          We can love without having to remind our LH  what our RH is doing.  Could such love be my greatest desire? If it’s not, it should be!

          Yes, penance can be misunderstood. It is a form of dying to self, of courage, of freedom.  It is something we are called to understand better not just for 40 days of Lent but always, as we pray that we might rise to new life, Easter.   [_fin_]