Ash Wednesday
Archbishop Curley High School, Mount St. Mary’s University
February 14, 2024
Lent is here. Are you Ready?
To begin with, I must admit that Lent seemed to sneak up on us. Lent begins very early this year. We knew it was coming, but perhaps, sitting here this morning/evening, we might not be as prepared as we should be for the Season of Lent. If you find yourself in that place, the good news is that it’s not too late! Lent is just beginning, and now is as good a time as any to make a plan for Lent. Because, in this moment, in this Mass we’re celebrating here and now, the Lord is calling us to repent and believe in the Gospel. God is calling us to turn away from anything and everything that keeps us from loving him and from loving our neighbor. He is calling us to believe in the Gospel, the Good News that in his Son, Jesus Christ, he has conquered all things, even sin and death.
The Basics
In a crowd such as this, I hope you would know the basics of this Season of Lent. Lent is a time in the desert, a time to prepare our hearts for the coming celebration of the Lord’s suffering, death, and resurrection. Lent is lived out through the practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent is a time when we give something up, take additional time for prayer, and give of ourselves and what we have in charity, to help those in need. Trusting that prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are familiar territory, I would like simply to reflect on two things: Why do we do these things? And what are the best things for us to do?
Creating a Space for God
So, in Lent, we are encouraged to engage in acts of penance or self-denial. The name for these intentional acts of self-denial is asceticism, and it’s been practiced by Christians since the first days of the Church. Seldom do you read the life of a saint who did not regularly practice some form of self-denial. By why? What is the purpose of these acts of self-denial? The short answer is that they create space in our lives for God and others. In a word, these practices pry our hearts open to God and others.
But let’s get this down to the practical level. Let’s say that we’ve have fallen into a bad habit, something holding us back, or perhaps something more serious that damages our relationship with God and with others. Lent is a good time to face those habits, a time to make a good effort to change, and to put in place the helps that we need to make that change last. One of our young priests had picked up the habit of smoking. When Ash Wednesday came along one year, he saw it as a great time to quit and quit he did.
Now as anyone who has tried to change a long-term habit knows, it isn’t easy. It requires a lot of strength and will-power. If we want to strengthen our will-power, that is to say, our capacity to choose what is good, especially when it is difficult, we are well served by starting small. While we might not think that giving up chocolate does that much, it is a small way to begin training our will, training ourselves to say, “I am going to choose to do what is good, not just what I want, or what is easy.” We train in these small things so that we have the capacity habitually to reject what is bad and choose what is good, and not only in small things but in the big decisions and choices that confront us. If we’re going to strive to give our lives in service to God and others, we have to start somewhere, and often, it’s something small, some small way that we chose to deny ourselves something we want, some small way, that we embrace something that is good even when it is hard.
Such a change is good; it’s good to grow in virtuous habits and to shake off vices. But there is a deeper truth that the self-denial of Lent teaches us. Often, when we take on some form of self-denial for Lent and take it seriously, we quickly discover that it’s really difficult to persevere, difficult not to give up. This is an important lesson: very often, we can’t do it. And this is true: If all we have is our will-power, at some point we will come up short. So, what does this do? It reminds us that we need help. We need the help of God’s grace, and we need the help of those whom God, in his goodness, has placed in our lives. When we engage in acts of self-denial we discover our limits; we discover the things we cannot do or cannot do well; and this opens up a crack that allows the light of God’s power into our hearts. This saves us from the greatest of all dangers: thinking that we have no need for God. So why do we engage in acts of self-denial? Not just to let go of bad habits and embrace good ones, but to make space for God in our hearts, to remind ourselves of our need for him.
Love of God and Love of Neighbor
So if this is why we engage in these practices during Lent, how do we know what are the best practices to do. What should we give up? How should we pray more? What form does our charity take? I imagine most of you, sitting here today, have something in mind and that’s good! But I would ask you the same two questions I ask myself: Does my Lenten penances help me grow closer to God? Do they help me love my neighbor more?
If we give something up only to make ourselves better, then Lent becomes little more than a self-help program. If fasting is done without prayer, then it remains little more than a diet plan. So, what saves us from that? Asking the sincere question: Does this help me grow closer to God and does this help me to love my neighbor?
Now, let me be clear: I am not proposing an easy way out, far from it! Indeed, doing something for ourselves is always going to be easier. But dying to ourselves, sacrificing what we might want for the good of another, doing something to lighten another person’s burden, going out of your way to listen to that person you’d rather ignore, trying harder to consider how your words and actions impact those in your life, doing a little more so that those you encounter truly feel seen and heard, taking a risk to open yourself up and share your gifts that you’d rather hide . . . all of that is much harder than giving up chocolate!
So, give up the chocolate, sure. But don’t stop there. This Lent you might not only pass on the Reece’s, but also pass on that sarcastic comment, or sharp look. Cut out screen time, yes. But use that time to actually talk to people in your life, and more than just talking to them, actually talk with them, which also means listening to them.
But most importantly, allow the struggle and difficulty of Lent to open a space in your hearts for God. Lenten self-denial should be challenging, yes, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Each night, spend some quiet time. Talk to God as you would to a friend. Share with him everything that is in your heart, be authentic. If we live Lent in this way: recognizing our need for God, striving to grow closer to God and striving to love our neighbor, then this Lent will be truly fruitful.