Wednesday March 5, 2025

Ash Wednesday – Year C

Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

1st reading: Joel 2,12-18

Psaume : 50,3-4,5-6ab,12-13, 4.17

2rd reading: 2 Corinthians 5,20:6 – 2:XNUMX

Gospel: 6,1-6.16-18

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I said at the beginning of the Mass that as we enter Lent, we prepare to celebrate Pentecost. I was not mistaken… I did not speak of Easter, I spoke of Pentecost. I spoke of the whole path of Lent and of Easter Time that opens before us, because we must not separate these two times.

At the heart of this 96-day period, we will solemnly celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, in the three days of the Passion, Burial and Resurrection of the Lord. This event of the death and resurrection of Christ is the fundamental event of the work of salvation that God has accomplished, and it is the fundamental event - the foundation - of our life as baptized persons. In baptism, we have been plunged into death with Jesus in order to rise with him: " Already — the apostle Paul tells us, we will hear it again on Easter morning — already, you are resurrected" (Col 3,1:XNUMX). But this mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus which took place at a given moment in the history of men, this event which we are given to share through baptism, we must live it throughout our earthly existence. That is to say, we must constantly die to ourselves so that Christ can give us a share in his resurrection, so that sinful man can give way to the new man, through the conversion of our existence. This is what we will ask God on the eve of Pentecost, on Saturday morning, when we will pray thus:

Almighty God, we pray to you at the end of these Easter celebrations that by your grace, they may permeate our actions and our lives.

These Easter celebrations give us access to the death and resurrection of Christ: may this death and resurrection of Christ permeate our actions and our life, become like the matrix of our life. For this, we enter this time of Lent to do two things mainly: the first will be indicated to us on Sunday in the prayer. We will pray thus:

Almighty God, you who invite us each year to live Lent in truth, grant us to progress in the understanding of the mystery of Christ and to seek its realization through a life that corresponds to it.

The grace we ask for in this Lent is to progress in the understanding of the mystery of Christ, that is, to know Christ Jesus better, to love him more, to become more familiar with his life, with who he is, with the way he proceeds. And so this is surely an opportune moment to resume a continuous reading of a Gospel. Since we are in the year in which we read more of Saint Luke, why not resume the Gospel of Luke as a background reading during this Lent, to know Christ better, to know him in order to love him better, to love him better in order to follow him better.

The second thing is that we can to achieve this through a life that suits him : in this time of Lent we will train ourselves to die to ourselves. And in the Easter season, we train ourselves to truly live the resurrection. This death to ourselves comes through penance, through self-denial, through the growth of charity.

The Gospel that we have heard indicates three attitudes that we know well: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. The goal is not to give alms. The goal is not to pray. The goal is not to fast. The goal is to love one's neighbor, to love God, to renounce one's little selfish self that hinders us so well.

The decisions we can make to live this Lent must really have as their goal to help us to love Jesus better in order to follow him better, to love our brothers better. And this is even one of the ways to verify that the path of penance, of prayer, that we take, is right. It is to verify that our concrete charity grows towards our brothers.

On these three dimensions of almsgiving, prayer and fasting, I would just like to recall three little words from Saint Therese which can help us to live these three dimensions.

On alms : Thérèse tells how, when she was little, she often went for walks with her father. And she says:

Often during these long walks we met the poor and it was always little Thérèse who was responsible for bringing them alms, which made her very happy. (Manuscript A 11v)

What place does almsgiving have in our lives? What place does this sharing of our wealth have? And during this Lent, how will we more, with joy, share our goods with those who have not?

On prayer : The goal of prayer is union with God. It is not so much about reciting prayers, and Thérèse speaks of prayer in a very beautiful way. She says:

For me, prayer is an outpouring of the heart, a simple glance cast toward Heaven, a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trials as well as in the midst of joy; finally, it is something [25v°] great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus. (Manuscript C 25)

Take the time, every day, to turn towards the Lord through this impulse of the heart, through this interior movement which carries us towards the Lord: a movement of love in response to the love of God.

And then on fasting or penance : Therese clearly tells us that she does not like penance. She says:

Penances, alas! I have never done any, far from resembling the beautiful souls who from their childhood practiced all kinds of mortifications, I felt no attraction for them. […]

But she specifies:

My mortifications consisted of breaking my will, always ready to assert itself, of holding back a word of reply, of rendering small services without making the most of them, of not leaning my back when I was sitting, etc., etc. (Manuscript A Folio 68 Verso).

It is not about doing great things. Therese is well aware that she is incapable of doing great things. But what gives value to everything we do is the love with which we do it. We remember what the apostle Paul tells us: “If I do not have charity, what I do is of no use. If I have faith enough to move mountains, if I do not have charity, it is of no use. If I give all my goods in charity, if I do not have charity, it is of no use.” (1 Cor 13,2:3-XNUMX)

And so, this work that we have to do in this coming time of Lent is really to learn to love our brothers and sisters more concretely. And to love more, it is necessary that we renounce ourselves in order to grow in patience, to grow in attention to others, to grow in concrete service to our neighbor.

This requires us to renounce ourselves. It necessarily requires an effort. We can do it out of a dried-up duty or we can do it out of love for God and for our brothers.

This love we must ask for in prayer daily. This love we must beg constantly from God.

This is what it means to constantly stand under the mercy of God: to let ourselves be loved by God, to let ourselves be loved by Jesus, constantly, in order, in return, to love God and to love our brothers.

Amen

Father Emmanuel Schwab, Rector of the Shrine