Ash Wednesday
22nd February 2023 (Wednesday) Readings and Reflection
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Reading of the Day
First Reading: Joel 2:12-18
"Yet even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Sion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, "Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?' " Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people.
Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17 (R. see 3a)
R/. Have mercy, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Brethren: We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, "In a favourable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Gospel : Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, "Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Daily Gospel Reflection
The Reflection by Fr. Thumma Mariadas Reddy MSFS{alertWarning}
Main Theme: Repent and return!
Indicative: Repent and turn away from your sin, so that God may relent from His just judgment and His mercy may be resent{alertSuccess}
1. Today is a very special day. We enter the season of Lent, a season of grace, a call for repentance and conversion. The purpose is to remit, rearrange, transform, and elevate our life which is often disordered and disfigured because of sin and evil. Thus we can live a more beautiful, more tranquil, more joyful, and more pleasant life.
2. Therefore this season is also a season of joy, and not of sadness, as many think or imagine. Repentance and penitence are not signs of sadness, but the expressions of our awareness of sin, of our desire to make reparation and recuperation, of our firmness to detach ourselves from everything that separates us from God, of our concrete effort to grow in faith and charity, and in sum, to enhance in a life of devotion and virtue. Therefore, when there is work and the increase of grace, there is certainly an increase in holy joy.
3. Today, the ashes we place on us, indicate and teach us how we must spend these days of Lent.
i) First of all, the ashes indicate our origin and our end: therefore the words are pronounced: you have come from dust, and you will go back into dust. God created us, He gave us this life, He breathed his own life inside us, and He shaped us in his own image. So we must always have a deep and lively sense of gratitude, of dependence, of an inseparable bond, and then always try to grow in the spirit of trust and likeness.
ii) We must never forget our origins. But unfortunately, it happens in our days, that man neglects God and the spiritual side, because of development, material comfort, of human capacities. The world thinks it is self-sufficient, and does not need God, and therefore tries to organize its life, throwing God out of the space of life. Truly a situation that reminds us and relives the time of the "tower of Babel".
iii) We must always remember our end. Our goal is to re-go to God where we came from. Reaching our origin is the last point of this earthly journey. Therefore we must always recognise the transience of life on earth. Life on earth is only a limited duration. Everybody someday and in some way has to go away. The earthly life is like a journey, a pilgrimage, with a stabilized destination, with a destiny beyond.
iv) So we cannot attach ourselves to this world, we cannot behave like being permanent on earth. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians in his second letter in 5. 1, 9-10: when this dwelling of the body, the tent of earthly life, is destroyed, we all have an eternal home, prepared and made ready by God for each of us. On that day everyone must stand before the Lord for his judgment, and each one will be judged according to his good works and evils, according to the quality of his way of life. How many are foolish, living without any sense of responsibility and accountability? How miserable their fate will be! Those who refuse imperishable in preference to the perishable will certainly be rejected for the same imperishable. We reap what we sow!
v) The ashes also denote our weakness, our fragility, and our human unworthiness. Without God, without His help, we are nothing like dust and ashes. Without the breath of His Spirit, we will be without life, without energy. This awareness must safeguard us against arrogance and unbridled autonomy, and grow in us the spirit of humility.
vi) The ashes still indicate the state of annihilation. Nothing remains at the end. This fact must arise in us a profound spirit of detachment, of sacrifice. Be careful of too much attachment to things, to worldly profits, to great avarice. What is worth acquiring the whole world, but losing our soul? How much stupidity to cling to superficial things but to let go of the essential things! How much sadness to accumulate useless things but not obtain anything worthwhile!
Imperative: We are given three pillars to construct the edifice of the Lenten season, and three equipments to continue our Lenten journey. They are namely, prayer, fasting, and charity. Let us then begin our steps forward with confidence and firmness.{alertSuccess}