“Repent and believe in the Gospel.” This is what we hear proclaimed in a few short moments when we receive a smudge of ashes on our foreheads. That is what Jesus asks of us today, to repent and to believe in the Gospel, in his Good News. Today we start the holy season of Lent, a time of intense spiritual renewal for us as we prepare to celebrate the annual commemoration of the Paschal mystery of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. Lent is also a very special time for the catechumens and candidates in our RCIA program, as they enter their final weeks of preparation for baptism or full-communion with us in our Catholic faith.
Ashes were used in Old Testament times to symbolize mourning, mortality, and penance. People like Job in the Old Testament wore sackcloth and ashes to proclaim their desire to repent. But ashes are not just an outward sign. Ashes are to symbolize what is going on in the inside. The prophet Joel tells us that we are to return to God with our whole hearts, to return to him with prayers and weeping and fasting. But we are not just to tear apart our outer garments. We are to truly have an interior change and repentance of heart.
Every year on Ash Wednesday, we priests are truly edified as we see the faithful come so sincerely and devoutly to church as we start this penitential season. Today, you will all receive a black rubber wristband. The color black of the wristband will remind us of the ashes we receive today. The black wristband not only represents the contrition we feel in our hearts for our sins and our desire to repent; it is also a reminder that God is gracious and merciful to those who call on him with repentant hearts. We will turn in our Lenten promise cards today. Inscribed on our wristbands is the word SACRIFICIUM – the Latin word meaning SACRIFICE. These wristbands will remind us and the world of the promises we are committing to during this Lenten season. And indeed, it will take commitment, sacrifice, and steadfastness to be true to our Lenten promises when we are tempted to break them or leave them behind.
Pope Francis has said that Lent is to be a time that shakes us up out of our sleep and out of our complacency. And Pope Benedict XVI sees Lent as a holy time that helps us live out the love of Christ in an ever more radical way in our daily lives. Let us feel God calling out to us today in a very profound way, to “repent and believe in the Gospel.”
Pope Francis has said that Lent is to be a time that shakes us up out of our sleep and out of our complacency. And Pope Benedict XVI sees Lent as a holy time that helps us live out the love of Christ in an ever more radical way in our daily lives. Let us feel God calling out to us today in a very profound way, to “repent and believe in the Gospel.”
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