Today we begin with the forty-day penitential season of Lent. The Catechism teaches that during Lent, “the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” Jesus had entered the desert prior to initiating his public ministry and dedicated himself entirely to prayer and fasting. At the end of this period of forty days, he was subjected to three temptations of the devil. Although the Lord had been physically weakened by fasting, he was spiritually strengthened to resist the devil’s temptations. Thus, as we begin this season of Lent and as we engage in the three forms of penance: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, it would be helpful to recall the mystery of Jesus in the desert and imagine ourselves as praying and fasting alongside him. This liturgical season is not only a universal call to penance, but also a reminder of the great mercy of Our God. Despite the myriad ways we have offended the Lord by our sins, he shows us His mercy time and again.
On Ash Wednesday, we receive the sign of ashes on our heads as the priest or deacon reminds us to “Repent, and believe in the Gospel,” or says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” While the Lord is indeed merciful, our time on this earth is limited. We must not take this time for granted, since we do not know the day or the hour when we will return to the dust from where we came. The Lord’s mercy knows no bounds and is freely given to us. However, our salvation will never be complete unless we cooperate with the Lord’s work of salvation. His mercy is without effect in a soul that remains unrepentant and in a heart that has been hardened by repeated sin that is committed knowingly and willingly. We cannot receive God’s mercy if our hearts and minds are closed off to the Lord. So long as we prefer our own sinfulness, our egoism, pride, selfishness, bitterness, vitriol, greed, envy, lust, slothfulness, gluttony, or any other evils, the Lord’s grace cannot penetrate our hearts and fill them with the light of His love.
The first reading for Ash Wednesday from the prophet Joel encourages us to return to the Lord with our whole heart, “with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.” He then exhorts us to “Rend your hearts, not your garments.” In ancient Israel, people would sometimes tear their garments as an external expression of sorrow, grief, anguish, or remorse. During the trial of Jesus, the high priest Caiaphas tears his garments when he hears Jesus utter what he thinks is blasphemy. In doing so, he expresses his anguish and his anger towards this perceived sin. However, in the case of Caiaphas, his rending of garments is merely a performative gesture. He had maliciously intended to find cause to have Jesus put to death and saw Jesus’ testimony as an opportunity to accomplish his goal.
People often perform external gestures as an expression of their feelings and emotions. We make the sign of the cross at the beginning of Mass as a reminder of our love for God and that we gather for Mass in the name of the Blessed Trinity. We beat our chests during the penitential rite at Mass to express contrition for our sins. These external signs can be helpful reminders of our own need of repentance, conversion, and healing. However, if we perform these outward gestures without the intention to follow through with the actual work of repentance and conversion, then these signs are rendered meaningless.
During today’s Mass, we all receive ashes on our heads as an expression of grief and sorrow for our sins and a reminder of our own fragile mortality. We should not allow our reception of ashes to remain an empty outward gesture. As the catechism teaches in paragraph 1430: “Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, ‘sackcloth and ashes,’ fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.” In other words, as we receive ashes on our heads, we should examine ourselves and ensure that we are receiving them with the right intention. Do we merely wish to “virtue signal” to others that we are holy and pious Catholics? Do we wish to show off our ashes to our family, friends, or coworkers or glorify ourselves with a selfie posted on social media? Or are we truly sorry for our sins, individually and collectively, and are we willing to begin this season of Lent with the proper disposition and intention?
Sometimes, Lent is treated as a season for self-help or self-improvement. People might use the season to begin a new diet or to give something up for a forty-day period before returning to the very thing they gave up. However, these are practices that people can begin at any time throughout the year. We do not have to wait for Lent to begin a new diet or exercise program. This approach to Lent not only misses the reason for this season, but it also disconnects it from the mystery of Jesus in the desert. This penitential season is a time of more intense spiritual preparation through bodily mortification. We offer penances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, not merely for the sake of self-improvement, but to fortify ourselves against the wiles and snares of the devil and the temptations of the flesh. When we regularly engage in works of penance with the right intention and according to our abilities and our state in life, we strengthen ourselves against temptation. This time of fasting is a wonderful opportunity to detach ourselves from the pleasures of the flesh and from enslavement to our sensual appetites so that we might be more open and attentive to the Word of God. As Jesus says to the devil in the desert, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” We fast from material bread so that we might be nourished by spiritual bread, the Word of God.
Repentance is not simply a one-time action but it requires sustained effort throughout our entire lives. The catechism teaches in paragraph 1431: “Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace.” Notice that the catechism breaks down repentance into two main parts. The first part is turning away from sin and showing repugnance for the evil we have done. Sometimes people come to confession and feel like they have to confess sins that they have previously confessed because they feel bad about them. While this is understandable, it is not necessary to confess sins again that were already properly confessed. However, there is nothing wrong with feeling bad about sins we have committed in the past, even if we have already confessed them. In fact, we should still feel bad about them, so that we might continue to reject them in the future. But these sins that have been forgiven should never lead us to become fixated on our sins or to despair of our salvation. We should always remember God’s grace and allow the horror of our past sins to inspire us to do more works of penance: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, while trusting in God’s mercy. This leads us to the second part of repentance, which is turning towards the Lord. Thus repentance requires both turning away from sin and turning towards the Lord.
As we begin our Lenten journey, may we all maintain a healthy disposition towards penance, recognize our own sinfulness in the light of God’s love and mercy, and cooperate with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit by detaching from material excess and from bodily pleasures, whether licit or illicit, and by offering penances from a humble and contrite heart. We pray that we might not merely perform external works of piety to be seen and praised by others, but for the sake of our conversion and salvation. The Lord knows the secrets of our hearts and can see the good things we intend to accomplish with the help of His grace. As Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading, “And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”
– Fr. Matthew Mary, MFVA