Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Ash Wednesday
March 6, 2019
Joel 2:12-18, Ps 51, 2 Cor 5:20-6:2, Mt 6:1-6.16-18
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Lent is about returning to the Lord with our whole heart, helped by him to make it clean. It’s a time of conversion, a grace we should not receive in vain, but act on with urgency to be reconciled to God, to repent and believe in the Gospel.
- The ashes we receive are a reminder to us of three things. First they are a sign of our mortality, that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. Lent reminds us that we will die and so, like at the beginning of creation, we need to be infused with the breath of life, with God’s life. Yes we will die, but God wants to raise us, even now. Lent is not just about a minor course correction in our life but about a death and resurrection, Christ’s and ours in him. Second, they are a sign of repentance. We see them used this way by the prophet Jonah with the Ninevites, by Daniel, by the Maccabees. They are a summons to repent and believe in the Gospel. Third, as we see in Esther, they are a means of supplication, of prayer, for others, for their salvation. We wear ashes for all three purposes.
- Today in the Gospel Jesus speaks to us about the three practices that help us to be renewed, to die to ourselves and have him live, faithful to the Gospel. Prayer helps us die to our ego so that we may live for and with him, putting on his mind. Almsgiving has us think of others’ needs and act to help them, rather than be obsessed about our own pleasures. Fasting checks the domination of our appetites over us and makes possible our hungering for what God hungers. They are a means by which we enter into Jesus’ prayer, fasting for 40 days in the desert, and his total self-giving. God the Father wants to reward us, as Jesus says in the Gospel, for our spirit of conversion and living the Gospel together with Jesus.
- To help us on this 40-day journey, Jesus gives himself to us in the Holy Eucharist. We begin every Mass with the penitential rite, seeking to return to him with our whole heart because he is gracious and merciful. It’s here we enter into the now of our faith, prioritizing him whom we receive in the Eucharist over everything. It’s here that we come having fasted so that we might hunger for what he hungers. It’s here, as we receive him as our greatest alms, that we’re made capable of giving him to others. This is the trumpet we’re called to blow in Zion and in New York, not our own, but his salvation.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
JL 2:12-18
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, “Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
and took pity on his people.
Responsorial Psalm
PS 51:3-4, 5-6AB, 12-13, 14 AND 17
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.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
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.”
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Reading 2
2 COR 5:20-6:2
We are ambassadors for Christ,
as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says:
In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.
Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
Gospel
MT 6:1-6, 16-18
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
