Ash Wednesday Year C
Joel 2:12-18
Ps. 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14, 17
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
People put their hope in many things. Some into financial stability. Others into good health and healthy lifestyle. Someone else puts all hope into a political system or ideology. Some people put hope into self-building – becoming independent in every possible way.
However, which of these things can fix my heart, heal my wounds, restore the fallen apart relations, make my heart and soul whole again? Which of the things people put their hope in can give meaning to my twisted life? The more we think the clearer we see that none of them do.
Lent is an exceptional time to think precisely about this. Where is my hope? Do I hope at all? What do I expect from my hope?
Joel, the prophet, redirects our attention. Return to me with all your heart (…) rend your hearts not your garments (Joel 2:12). Move from the surface to the mystery of being! For there is nothing in this world that gives true, lasting peace! There is nothing that can fill the void of my heart but the Lord himself! Nothing and no one can fix my existence and make it meaningful. Only Him! He is our hope!
Rend your hearts and see what is there! What do you see there? Bring it to the Lord, so he may bring blessing! (cf. Joel 2:14). Jesus presents God as Father who welcomes back, forgives, restores and gives meaning to our lives (cf. Lk 15:11-32). Keeping this in mind, we embark on the journey of returning to Him just as the prodigal son did. The prodigal son recognizes the void of his heart and the misery he caused. He recognizes what he lost (cf. Lk 15:17). He returns and he is restored as son (Lk 15:22-24). We are invited to do the same. Conversion is not to be reduced to outward forms or vague intentions. It engages and transforms one’s entire existence beginning from the center of the person, the heart.
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are but tools to rend our hearts, to see clearly, and to help us to return. St. John Chrysostom encourages us to repent, to return to God, the Father, offering us concrete steps: The first path is the path of condemnation of sins. As Isaiah says, tell your sins, and you will be acquitted. And the Psalmist adds: I said “I will bear witness against myself before the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. So, you, too, must condemn the sins you have committed. Condemn them, and that condemnation will excuse you in front of the Lord, since whoever condemns the sins he has committed will be slower to commit them next time. Stir up your own conscience to be your accuser – so that when you come before the judgment seat of the Lord no one will rise to accuse you.
This is the first path to repentance, but the second is in no way inferior to it in excellence. It is to forget the harm done to us by our enemies, to master our anger, to forgive the sins of those who are slaves together with us. As much as we do this, so much will our own sins against the Lord be forgiven. So this is the second path to the expiation of our sins. As the Lord says, Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours.
Would you like to know the third path to repentance? It is prayer: fervent prayer, sincere and focused prayer, prayer coming from the depths of the heart. If you want to know the fourth path, I will tell you it is the giving of alms. It has great power. And finally, if someone acts with modesty and humility, that path is no less effective to deprive sin of its substance. Look at the publican, who had no good deeds to speak of. In place of good deeds, he offered humility, and the huge burden of his sins fell away.
So now I have shown you the five paths to repentance. First, condemnation of sins. Second, forgiving the sins of those near us. Third, prayer. Fourth, almsgiving. Fifth, humility. So do not be idle but advance along all these paths every day at once. They are not hard paths to follow. Poverty is no excuse for not setting out on the journey. Even if you are destitute, you can do all these things: put aside anger, carry humility in front of you, pray hard, condemn your sins. Poverty is no obstacle – not even to that path of penitence that demands money: that is, almsgiving. Remember the story of the widow’s mite. Now we have learned the right way to heal our wounds, let us apply these remedies. (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. de diabolo tentatore 2, 6. PG 49, 263-264)