Ash Wednesday 2020 Series

Ask Wednesday homily

I beg you, on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God. If God is love, and He certainly is, and if He became human so that we could, when we fall asleep for the last time, be swept up into the awesome beauty, truth, and goodness of the Trinity, then we should keep ourselves ready. Now is the time.

From time to time I am asked after this Gospel whether the ashes we receive are the kind of visible practice of piety that we should hide, lest those who see us give us praise. In other words, wash off or not?

Well, aren’t we there today in our society? Who is praised by the New York Times and social media? A couple of days ago the U.S. Senate voted on a bill I called “Whappa,” which was supposed to protect women’s health but actually would have wiped out every pro-life protection for babies in every state of the Union. You know who the media heroes are, don’t you? They are the sponsors of the bill who want to make all of us accept child-murder and pay for it and let them teach our children how that monstrous action makes them “free.”

I don’t think over the past ten or twenty years that when I left the ashes on my forehead, I’ve ever heard anybody praise me for my piety. I have had folks ask me what my dirty forehead meant. And I get to witness to them of the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

So take the ashes and then decide for yourself what to do with the rest of the day. But the big decision is what you will do with the rest of your life. Yes, don’t eat meat today and on Fridays during Lent, and reduce the amount and quality of your meals for forty days. (You get Sundays off because they are celebrations of Christ’s Resurrection.) Yes, give money and cans and service to help the poor. Yes, pray more, especially in our prayer chapel.

But examine your life and go over the commandments of God and the church. If you’ve forgotten them, it’s easy to find the Catechism, even on-line. Confess your sins. Turn your face toward Christ and think of what He’s done for you. Be grateful every day, and make a prayer of gratitude the first words you say every day when you awake. Then when you fall asleep for the last time, you can have confidence that your life of love will never end.