Ash Wednesday Homily

Today marks the beginning of the holy season of Lent. Throughout the course of this 40 day period we will join with Christ who enters into the desert and thus we will fast and pray as we prepare ourself for the great joy that enters into the world through Christ's Resurrection. On this day we are marked with an ancient symbol that represents the need for us to do penance and to turn away from our sin. Upon our foreheads will be placed ashes which remind us that we are dust and unto dust we shall return.

I am sure that I am not the only one here who has been stopped on this day by a Good Samaritan who desires to make you aware that you have a black mark upon your forehead. The answer is, of course, that you do have something on your forehead and I hope that you realize the great weight that is being represented to the world by that mark which you will soon dare to bare. We do not come forward to receive ashes just because or because it is just some cultural expression that is of great importance to us. Instead when we bare this mark upon our forehead we are publicly professing that we are sinners who are in need of conversion.

So the answer is that something is upon my forehead and it is of great weight. This mark represents all times that I have denied God and His Church. This mark represents all the times that I have failed to love my neighbor as I should. This mark represents each and every single time that I have entered into sin. This mark represents the great weight that casts each of us down each and every single time that we allow our temptations to get the best of us. What we are publicly professing through the mark that we will dare to wear upon our forehead is a proclamation to the whole world that we are a sinner who is in need of God's mercy and thus that we must also be moved towards the necessity of conversion.

Throughout the course of this forty day period that is known as Lent may we truly come to "repent and believe in the Gospel." May we take what is expressed by these ashes as being serious and thus allow ourself to be moved towards conversion instead of the continued persistence in our sin. It is for this reason that we fast, pray, and give alms; because these actions allow us to reform those areas of our life that have been brought down by the weight of our sin. The mark that we dare to bare this day places an immense amount of responsibility upon us as we are set out to conform our life to the Gospel message.