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| Tyler Nienas - Remember You are Dust... |
Below is part of today's homily
Ash Wednesday
During Lent we look to Easter. We look to the new promise we are being offered. We look to Jesus our Lord and redeemer.
Yes, “we are dust and to dust we shall return” but our dust has been blessed when we experienced the greatest love of all in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Death is no longer the final word in our lives.
Being aware of the great gift of life eternal and friendship with God, we want to live this life to the full. Yes, “we live only once” as some people say but it is a life that does not end with death. Yes, “we live only once and we want to live this life to the full” but the truth is that we keep on making wrong choices, we keep on listening to the wrong voices.
Lent is the time when – aware of what is hurting us – we make the choices that are needed to remove them from our lives.
We are broken people looking for healing. Lent is a time for healing.
While we tend to think of Lent as a time of penance and sacrifice, I would like to think of it as the best time of the year to look for fullness of life.
Then you understand in a new way the regular invitations to fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
Fasting and abstaining
We sometimes reduce it to “not eating meat” on certain days or "not drinking and/or smoking" but it is more than that.
As we are called to “fast” or “abstain from” something, I would like to invite you to “do something else”:
- As Pope Francis says, one can fast from “gossiping”. Do not stop there. Take one step furthers: make an effort to talk well about the person you were going to gossip about;
- Fast from “using rough words or a rough tone” and “speak gently” to the very people who would normally be afraid of you because of the way you relate to them;
- Fast from “complaining about everything and everyone” and make sure you “count your blessings”;
- Fast from “any type of violence” and “be gentle, be a peacemaker;
- Fast from “taking bribes” which is an abuse of power and give your job the dignity it deserves;
- Fast from asking “what is my cut in this”, fast from asking “what is there for me” at the time someone needs your help and “be supportive”, a selfless supporter of those who will benefit with it;
- Fast from “the need to revenge” and “pray for your enemy” as Jesus expects from his disciples.
When you do any of these things, we develop our full potential but also show we are much more than dust, our dust is blessed!
When we do this, we show whose child we are: a child of God! Bring back then the dignity of your dust. Show you are God's creation called now to life eternal.
Almsgiving
It is easy then to understand the call to almsgiving.
It is a call to move from selfishness to solidarity, from indifference to compassion. Much more at a time of such a crisis in our country.
A number of people – maybe Christians – think that the effort to revert the situation of crisis we find ourselves in, has to be made by someone else. People might have all types of solutions to this, solutions that never touches them. The usual way out, affects mostly the poorest in the country.
We – instead – as Christians, commit ourselves to restore the dignity of our brothers and sisters. We commit ourselves to show them that they are much more than dust! Our almsgiving is the fruit of giving up something to help others.
The commitment of Catholics in this country is huge. Enough to think of the amount of support we have given this year to hundreds of children attending primary and high school. It is the fruit of our Lenten journey.
Prayer
In a document published last year, Pope Francis says: “The best way to discern if our prayer is authentic is to judge to what extend our life is being transformed in the light of mercy”.
Therefore, the Lenten invitation is much more than “praying more” or “regularly”. It is making sure that we pray in such a way that we become more merciful, merciful like the Father, more like Jesus.
We are now invited to come forward and be marked with a cross of ashes. Ashes that reminds us we are dust, a cross that reminds us of Jesus' greatest love for you and me.
