Our responsorial Psalm is Psalm 51. Known traditionally as the Miserere, this Psalm is penitential. Because Fridays throughout the year are days of penance (unless a solemnity falls on a Friday), the Miserere is the first Psalm for Morning Prayer for all four weeks of the Psalter.
Have mercy on me, O God, in goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me1Only sinners, those who have done wrong, need mercy. Penance is how we cooperate with God in his redemptive work of setting the world aright. The world needs to be set aright because of sin, because of my sin. God’s invitation for us to repent, God’s desire for us to reconcile with Him and one another, is a great kindness.
In his Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul insists that “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.”2 In 1 John, the scriptures make clear that “If we say, ‘We are without sin,’ we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”3
These scriptural passages make it clear that all of us need God’s mercy. In a long interview given at the beginning of his pontificate, the first question the interviewer, a fellow Jesuit, asked was, “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio.” To this, the Holy Father replied:
I do not know what might be the most fitting description.... I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner4If you do not think yourself a sinner who needs a Redeemer, then you simply cannot be a Christian. Knowing one’s need for a Savior is fundamental to Christianity. On a personal level, it’s easier to discuss the perceived sins of others. But during Lent, God urges you to confront yourself. Looking back to last Sunday’s Gospel reading, Lent is the time for each of us to remove the beam from our own eye.5
Ash Wednesday Masses have no penitential rite at the beginning. This is due to the imposition of ashes. Receiving ashes, which we will do in a few moments, is the penitential rite for this Mass. To receive ashes in good faith, you need to be resolved to heed the words said as they are imposed: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”6
Repentance, which is a translation of the Greek word metanoia, refers to much more than acknowledging and being sorry for your sins, which is only the beginning of repentance, just as fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.7 This where this “Gospel” you are to believe in comes into it. This good news assures us that perfect love drives out fear.8
To repent, then, means to literally transform your mind. Turning again to Romans, Saint Paul urges
not [to] conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect9It is the Spirit of God by the grace of God who transforms you. Nonetheless, a Christian isn’t content to keep living the way s/he lived before encountering Christ. Even in confession, one must not only express genuine sorrow for sin but be resolved, with God’s help, “to sin no more and avoid whatever leads me to sin.”10
Lent is a word from old English meaning “springtime.” This is the time of year when seemingly dead things “spring” back to life. A Christian life is a penitential life. Far from a life of misery, a penitential life is a joyful life, a happy life, a life immersed in the love of God, a life of loving your neighbor.
Lent isn’t for making yourself miserable in some piddling way for several weeks. Neither is it the time when you try to atone for your own sins. When you consider prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, which should characterize Christian life, focusing on one, like fasting, especially when it takes the form of giving something up, to the exclusion of the others, is an exercise in missing the point. What good is it, for instance, just to give up chocolate for Lent, especially when chocolate abounds at Easter?
Almsgiving is about what you are going to take up for love of neighbor. Right now, in a society in which more and more people are struggling in some way, what you do is probably more important than what you choose not to do. Prayer is opening yourself to God to be transformed so that you can discern God’s will and receive strength to carry it out.
Spiritual disciplines, of which prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the foundation, are means to the end of loving God with your whole being by loving your neighbor as you love yourself.
The irony of Ash Wednesday, which is not a holy day of obligation (though it is obligatory to fast and abstain), should not be lost on any one of us. We hear from Saint Matthew’s Gospel not to draw attention to our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving and then come to Mass and receive a big black smudge on our foreheads.
It bears noting that receiving this smudge is not a universal practice among Roman Catholics. In many places, as one comes forward with head bowed and has a few ashes sprinkled on the top of the head, as opposed to smeared on the forehead.
Regardless as to how the ashes are received, ashes mark you, not as a sinner, but as a penitent, sinner who trusts in God’s love and mercy. As such, ashes are not worn as a sign of pride, let alone displayed in a righteous way. Neither are the ashes worn with shame, which would be a denial of the Gospel we profess to believe. They are worn humbly and with gratitude for what the Father as done for us in Christ Jesus. These ashes are a sigh of hope, which is the flower of faith and love, agape, caritas, is their fruit.
Just as the penitential rite for this Mass is different, so is the dismissal. Rather than being sent forth to glorify the Lord by your life or to announce the Gospel, we pray that God will pour out upon those who bow before his majesty and who are committed to being transformed, “a spirit of compunction.” In this context, “compunction” refers to a feeling of guilt for one’s sins.11 Just as guilt is good if it helps you to repent, Lent is good if it helps you to repent.
1 Psalm 51:3-4.↩
2 Romans 3:23.↩
3 1 John 1:8.↩
4 Antonio Spadaro, SJ. “A Big Heart Open to God: An interview with Pope Francis.” America, Vol 209. No. 8↩
5 See Luke 6:41-42.↩
6 Roman Missal. Ash Wednesday.↩
7 Proverbs 9:10.↩
8 1 John 4:18.↩
9 Romans 12:2.↩
10 Act of Contrition.↩
11 Roman Missal. Ash Wednesday.↩
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