Ash Wednesday 2024 - Homily of Bp Paolo

With the celebration of Ash Wednesday, we begin the season of Lent. This is a time for purification of hearts, forgiveness of sins, and profound conversion. 

Pope Francis wrote a very important message for this sacred time: through the desert, God leads us to freedom. These words summarize the meaning of Lent's journey. We are called to move from slavery to the freedom of being children of God. In the desert, God speaks to the heart.

But there is a fundamental condition to rightly live the season of Lent, that is, recognizing our sins and having a sincere desire to be reconciled with God, as Saint Paul tells us in the second reading.
Often, we consider sin as very superficial. We think of sin as a light transgression, something private without much personal and social consequences. But in reality, sin is breaking communion with God and makes us remain closed to ourself. Sin, especially mortal sin, spreads a deadly poison into our lives.
When we close ourself and seek only our interests, when we nurture hatred towards someone, when we stop praying, when we stop loving God and others, then our heart becomes cold, and our spirit moves away from the source of life, turns away from Jesus.

For this reason, the first important step in the Lenten journey is to be aware of the sin within us and to feel the need to be forgiven and be healed.
We can give the example of a sick person: unless he realizes he is sick; he will not go to the doctor and begin the treatment for recovery. A sick person begins to heal only when he recognizes his condition and opens a desire to be healed.
The awareness of our sin thus leads us to ask God and our brothers and sisters for forgiveness. From our hearts, a cry rises: “Lord, forgive me. Have mercy on us.”
And as we know, the Lord is always ready to forgive, whatever our sins may be. Our Lord is never tired of forgiving us. We are the ones who sometimes get tired of asking forgiveness and remain closed into ourselves.

Lent is a favorable time. This is the time of salvation. Let us reconcile with God. Fasting, prayer and almsgiving are the gestures that the Church suggests to all the faithful during the season of Lent.  Let us Fast, not only from food, but everything that enslaves us. Let's free ourselves from the things that keep us away from God.

I invite you to pray more during this time. Approach the sacrament of confession. I ask you to take the crucifix in your hands, every now and then, and thank Jesus for his love for us.

Finally, Almsgiving is the invitation to love, correct our selfishness, and open ourselves towards others, especially those in need. May these three gestures help us to better live this season.

In this holy mass, we celebrate the rite of ashes: they remind us, on the one hand, that our life is short, and we will have to give an account of our life to God, we are not immortal, we are creatures. On the other hand, the imposition of ashes is an invitation to conversion, to return to God with all our hearts, to leave the path of death and return to the path of life, to experience our liberation from the slavery of sin and to be truly children of God.

I wish you a profound Lenten journey, from the slavery of sin to the freedom of being children of God. Our Lady of Arabia, refuge of sinners, pray for us.