Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday, the day we start 40 days of reorienting our lives to focus on God as the center. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that in this season of Lent we are invited to purify our hearts, seek the love of God, re-learn that true happiness is not found in riches, in human fame, in power, or in human achievement; rather true happiness is found in God alone (CCC 1723). Through the ancient practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we will avail ourselves to God, and demonstrate to Him our desire for repentance and renewal, so as to make Him the center of our lives.
There is a certain honesty and fragility built into this day. On Ash Wednesday, we come before God and acknowledge that we are broken, we are sinful, and we are badly in need of His mercy. We stand before God on this day and tell Him that we are a people that struggle with pride, with anger, with lust, with gluttony, with greed, with laziness, and with envy. In the words of the Psalmist (51) that we repeated in the Responsorial Psalm, each one of us pleads with God:
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me always: "Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight." [With God we plead] A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
In a moment I will be imposing the ashes on the foreheads of all gathered here as a sign before God and others that we are fallen, we are imperfect, we are works in progress. In acknowledging all of that about ourselves, we allow the grace of God to liberate us, to renew us, and to create us anew. It is comforting to know that we don’t have to liberate or to recreate ourselves. It is all up to God who loves us and welcomes us in our messiness. It is comforting to know that even when our sins are as red as crimson, when we acknowledge them and seek His mercy, He is ready to wash us and make us as white as snow.
May we ask God during this Mass, and throughout this Lenten season, for the courage each one of us needs to face ourselves and point out to God areas of our lives that need renewal. May God teach us humility, may He remind us of our mortality, and may He help us understand that He alone can satisfy our deepest longings.
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