Ash Wednesday March 5, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
“Do whatever it takes.” How often do we hear that? How many motivational speeches and posters exhort us to do whatever it takes? And for good reason. There’s a certain kind of blunt power to it, a directness and simplicity that has a way of lodging in the brain. Forget the excuses, the complicated whatnots… do whatever it takes.
Whatever it takes to do… what, exactly? That’s the important question. If your goal is a noble one – holiness, helping others, overcoming bad habits – then it can be downright heroic to follow that advice. Even Jesus gives this kind of advice for such goals: if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off… whatever it takes! But, if your goal is less lofty – money, fame, even just fun – then such a method might be not only less-than-heroic, but possibly barbaric. There are a lot of evil ways to “succeed” in this world if you’re willing to do whatever it takes.
So, what is your goal this Lent? Perhaps you’ve ignored the calls to prepare, to think ahead and pray about what God is asking of you during this holy season. Perhaps you’ve thought about it so much, it’s driving you crazy. Either way, it helps to take whatever you intend to do and lay it before what God is saying to us today. Whether you’ve lined up the most intense penances or not, whether you’ve got the most well-laid out plan for prayer or not, whether you’ve joined the best groups and bible studies or not, true success is in what the Lord asks of us.
And what is that? “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” I’ll say it a couple hundred times today: repent and believe in the Gospel. The point of this season is not muscular self-improvement. It’s also not lackadaisical presumption of God’s love and mercy. It is repentance. “Do whatever it takes” to repent and believe in the Gospel.
There are a couple of reasons to make this the goal. First, it reminds us we aren’t the ones who make this happen. Repentance is always a response. God acts first. He created this universe, created us according to his own infinite wisdom, and revealed to us how to live by that wisdom. When we sin, fall short, and wreak havoc upon ourselves and the world, it is God who convicts us, exposes our guilt, calls us to change. Only then can we repent. Whatever we think we’re accomplishing with this season, do not forget that He started it.
The second reason our goal is to repent and believe in the gospel is that it points us toward faith. Believe in the gospel. Belief is no simple opinion, no simple statement of what you think. Faith is a gift and Jesus calls it work to believe in him. How can it be both a gift and a task? Because, for fallen human beings, it takes work to accept such a gift. We’d much rather do it ourselves like Adam & Eve in the garden who tried to become like God by taking the forbidden fruit… and ended up dying because of it. Whether that proud self-reliance takes the form of thinking we’re fine on our own or thinking we’re totally beyond help, it still comes down to a refusal to receive the gift.
This is the point of penance, of the almsgiving, prayer, and fasting Jesus speaks of. This past Sunday, I offered some thoughts on the best way to go about doing these penances and evaluating their effectiveness. I encourage you to look at that reflection if you haven’t already. Regardless, the goal of penance is to put ourselves back into a position of receiving God’s gifts and of depending on him. If we treat our Lenten penances as a program of self-improvement, we’re missing the mark. We should want to improve – that’s why Jesus speaks of being “repaid” by the Father – but the only real improvement that matters in what St. Paul tells us: be reconciled to God! It is God who improves us, not self.
So, do whatever it takes to be reconciled to God! Be marked with ashes, give alms, pray more, fast, do penance… whatever it takes! But do you know what it really takes to be reconciled to God? Grace. It takes the grace of God, the supernatural power of God given to human beings to make them like God. That is the gospel! The good news is that God has given us this power. Repent and believe in the Gospel.
Believe that the gospel is more than words on a page. Believe that the gospel is more than platitudes. Believe that failed penances with humility are better than completed ones with pride. Believe that the gospel is the living faith of the Church, unbroken in her teaching from the beginning. Believe that the gospel is the lives of countless saints who’ve come before us. Believe that the gospel is the Sacraments! Stories have power, but the sacraments are the power! Believe that the sacraments are what make you part of the gospel, they make you part of Jesus Christ and he is the gospel – the word of God incarnate.
So make your Lenten penances as light or as heavy as you need, make them as creative or as plain as you want, make them into whatever it takes… do whatever it takes to draw you to the sacraments, to make better use of the sacraments, to live out the life of loving service called for by the sacraments… whatever it takes to repent and believe… to repent and live the Gospel given us in Jesus Christ.