Homily for Ash Wednesday: Why are you Here?

Ash Wednesday                                                                                              February 22, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette

Why are you here? Why take the time? It’s not a Holy Day of Obligation. It’s the middle of the week, so it’s not exactly convenient for people working today and probably an interruption for those on vacation. Now, I am glad you’re here, but the question is still important because how you answer that question determines whether or not this time is wasted.

Is it to just to get ashes smeared on your forehead? I hope you realize that these ashes aren’t magical. They don’t forgive sins. They don’t make you holy. In fact, if you’re getting them for the wrong reasons, it actually adds to your sins and makes you less holy. There are plenty of wrong reasons: doing it just for fun, doing it to show off to others, treating the ashes as making up for all the Masses you’ve missed.

But yes, there is at least one good reason to get them: as a sign of repentance. We human beings are a union of body and soul. Unlike the angels, living a good spiritual life requires us to use our bodies. Anyone who tells you who can bypass the physical in order to be more spiritual is leading you astray. It’s why we sit, stand, kneel, and bow during Mass… why we use rosary beads, saint’s medals, and prayer books. This union of body and spirit is the reason we stand our ground on what it means to be a man or a woman. It’s why we care so much about the meaning of marriage and why we won’t change our teaching on below-the-belt issues, no matter how many times the worlds asks us to. To be fully human requires us to use our bodies well.

And this applies to repentance. To repent is to turn away from sin and turn toward God. It is an authentic decision to stop sinning and start living a different kind of life. Physical signs can express that decision. The acceptance of ashes can be – should be an outward sign of the inward acceptance of our sinfulness. We admit we are dust and ashes, that we are going to return to dust and ashes, and that our only hope for making this short life of ours matter is to turn wholeheartedly to God. Why? Because only God can give us our bodies back after we return to dust. The point of these ashes is to remind us both that our bodies will die and that these bodies will be restored on the last day. The crux is that what kind of body we get back depends on our repentance here and now.

So yes, these ashes are a sign of repentance but also a sign of believing in the value of our bodies and in their resurrection. Unlike pagan myths that believe in reincarnation or in simple oblivion, we Catholics believe in an eternal restoration of each person as a unique body-soul unity. Whether that eternity is full of joy or punishment comes down to the sincerity of the very repentance these ashes represent. That’s the right reason to be here, to receive ashes: to profess your faith in the resurrection and to make tangible your repentance.

Of course, the ashes are still just a symbol of repentance and only the tiniest of physical expressions of it. Jesus, in no uncertain terms, makes it clear which bodily actions are the true signs of repentance: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.

To willingly sacrifice the pleasures of the body in fasting makes real our choice to turn away from the world and toward God. To spend time raising our hands and falling to our knees to pray is a genuine expression of reliance on God who raised us up from dust into a reflection of his own image and likeness. To freely give away our wealth, our ability to provide for ourselves is a profound expression of turning from selfishness to self-giving.

Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. Come receive your ashes but don’t forget what they represent. Make this symbolic action genuine by real, sacrificial giving. Make it last by praying not only when you feel like it, but as a disciplined act of choosing to focus on God and appeal to his goodness for the sake of others. Make it hurt by giving up the things that give you real, but merely temporary and worldly satisfaction.

Most importantly, admit your sins and stop sinning! All the disciplines in the world mean nothing if you cling to your sin. Just as St. Paul said to the Corinthians, so I say to you now, “Be reconciled to God!” Go to confession, get your missing sacraments, get right with Church, and stick around. The ashes are a cool symbol… a useful expression but ultimately, they’re still just ashes. Not so with the sacraments. Infinitely more powerful than ashes, the sacraments actually cause an encounter with God and one of them quite literally is God made physical, hidden in the forms of bread and wine.

Why are you here? For some ashes? Or for God himself? If you came for God, you’ll get ashes and so much more. If you came only for the ashes, that’s all you’ll get and it will mean nothing when you become ashes yourself. If you came for the wrong reasons, now is the time to make it right, to resolve to make repentance real, and to do the only thing worth doing: to be reconciled to God.