Ash Wednesday – Feb 14, 2018 - Homily - 1

Happy Lent. I know that sounds strange, to wish you a ‘Happy Lent’, because it’s suppose to be a solemn and penitential season, and by noon today you will all probably be complaining that you already miss that chocolate you gave up, but Lent is suppose to be a joyful and fruitful time for us. And that is because it is through our penances that we grow closer to God, as we push out all the distractions in our lives so that we can focus more intently on cleaning out the cobwebs of our spiritual lives, and work toward the goal of Lent: To grow closer to God – and it is in growing closer to our Lord that we find joy.

So today, I hope to encourage all of you not to let this important time of spiritual growth and renewal pass you by – I hope to encourage you to become more and more like Jesus every day for the next 40 days of Lenten observance, using today’s gospel as a guide – to joyfully undertake our penitential practises so that we may grow closer to God..

We first of all focus on our Prayer time – if we don’t have a daily time for prayer, it’s time to add that to our daily routine. Make an appointment for prayer – commit at least a few minutes each day to spend some time in silence away from distractions so that you can speak with our Lord. Pray the rosary, read the bible or some other spiritual reading – whatever works for you – but keep that time with our Lord every day.

If you already have a dedicated time of prayer, commit to it with even more fervour. Perhaps add some time, or begin a new form or prayer or spiritual reading. To become more like Jesus, the most important thing we must do is commit to speaking to him each day.

Secondly, we need to commit our efforts to fasting. Our Lenten tradition of giving something up shouldn’t be something that will be easy – we should look at our lives, and commit to doing something that will be truly penitential in some way – our fasting when done with love and joy will help us become more like Jesus who sacrificed everything for us. And when we fast, we allow our deeper desire for God to bubble up through the void. And when we allow that desire to bubble up within us, we also more fervently recognize our own need for repentance from sin, and our need for mercy which our Lord so willingly offers.

And thirdly, we need to commit to almsgiving in some way. To become more like Jesus is to be generous

with others. To be like Jesus is to look for every opportunity to reach out to others. We can give of our money, of our things, and of our time! A central tenant of our faith, and a central theme of Christ’s own earthly ministry is to reach out to those in need, especially to those on the margins. To become more like Jesus is to imitate what he did.

We come here today to participate in the great Catholic tradition of having ashes imposed upon our foreheads – a sign of humility before our God as we acknowledge our nothingness before him, and our complete dependence upon him for all things. And with this symbol of ashes, we also acknowledge our need for repentance, and our desire to grow closer to our Lord through these next 40 days of penance, highlighted by prayer, fasting and almsgiving as indicated in today’s gospel. If we can be faithful to these practises for the next 40 days, there is no doubt that we will achieve the Lenten goal as we approach Easter: To grow closer to Jesus.