Ash Wednesday
Memorial of Saints Cyrillus (+869) and Methodius (+885), fathers of the Slavic Church and patrons of Europe.

First Reading

Joel 2,12-18

'But now -- declares Yahweh- come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.' Tear your hearts and not your clothes, and come back to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and he relents about inflicting disaster. Who knows if he will not come back, relent and leave a blessing behind him, a cereal offering and a libation to be presented to Yahweh your God? Blow the ram's-horn in Zion! Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, call the people together, summon the community, assemble the elders, gather the children, even infants at the breast! Call the bridegroom from his bedroom and the bride from her bower! Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, stand weeping between portico and altar, saying, 'Spare your people, Yahweh! Do not expose your heritage to the contempt, to the sarcasm of the nations! Why give the peoples cause to say, "Where is their God?" ' Then, becoming jealous over his country, Yahweh took pity on his people.

Psalmody

Psalm 51

Antiphon

Lord I trust in You because You are good.

Why do you boast of your wickedness,
you champion of evil

planning ruin all day long,
(your tongue like a sharpened razor),
you master of deceit?

You love evil more than good;
lies more than truth.

You love the destructive word,
you tongue of deceit.

For this God will destroy you
and remove you for ever.

He will snatch you from your tent and uproot you
from the land of the living.

The just shall see and fear.
They shall laugh and say :

'So this is the man who refused
to take God as his stronghold,

but trusted in the greatness of his wealth
and grew powerful by his crimes.'

But I am like a growing olive tree
in the house of God.

I trust in the goodness of God
for ever and ever.

I will thank you for evermore;
for this is your doing.

I will proclaim that your name is good,
in the presence of your friends.

Second Reading

2 Corinthians 5,20-6,2

So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ we appeal to you to be reconciled to God. For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God. As his fellow-workers, we urge you not to let your acceptance of his grace come to nothing. As he said, 'At the time of my favour I have answered you; on the day of salvation I have helped you'; well, now is the real time of favour, now the day of salvation is here.

Reading of the Gospel

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Matthew 6,1-6.16-18

'Be careful not to parade your uprightness in public to attract attention; otherwise you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win human admiration. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward. But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. 'And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward. But when you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and so pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. 'When you are fasting, do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they go about looking unsightly to let people know they are fasting. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward. But when you fast, put scent on your head and wash your face, so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Homily

Today Lent starts and the liturgy reports God's passionate invitation, "Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning" (Jl 2:12). The prophet Joel, worried about the people of Israel's lack of sensitivity, adds: "Rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing" (Jl 2:13). Lent is the opportune time to return to God and to understand anew the very meaning of life. The liturgy comes to us with the ancient and austere sign of ashes. Ashes put upon our head, together with the biblical expression "Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return."
It is the truth of our life: indeed, we are frail and weak. Easily we elevate ourselves and forget we are a poor thing. Whoever elevates oneself and feels powerful, soon discovers to be weak. The ashes on out head remind us of our weakness.
We Christians are asked to be sentinels of peace in the places where we live and work. We are asked to be watchful, so that our consciences do not give in to the temptation of selfishness, deceit, violence, and conflict. Fasting and prayer make us sentinels, alert and watchful, so that the sleep of resignation, which considers war inevitable, does not overtake us; so that we do not fall asleep acquiescing in front of the evil that continues to oppress the world; so that we overcome the sleep of that lazy realism which makes us turn inward into ourselves and our interests. In today's Gospel, Jesus himself exhorts the disciples to fast and pray to divest themselves of all pride and arrogance and to dispose themselves to receive God's gifts. Our strength alone is not enough to ward off evil; we need to invoke the Lord's help; he - as Bonhoeffer liked to say -is the only one who makes us not only good but also strong so that love may win over hatred and peace which we do not know how to give ourselves.