22 February 2023 – Ash Wednesday (Year A)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

Today we begin a journey where we are called to climb this spiritual mountain together with Jesus. And the church gives us this moment of grace to allow ourselves to enter into that period together with Jesus.

It is a moment of grace that has been given to us by the church so that our hearts can be open to embrace the love and the compassion that the Father has for us.

So when we climb up that mountain, dear friends, this spiritual mountain where the Lord leads us, He invites us to listen, listen through our fasting, listen through our alms giving, listen through our prayers. And when we are able to do all these works of charity, we are called and invited to dig deeper, to look really at what the Lord is asking us and inviting us into. Because this moment of grace the Lord had given to us, dear friends, makes us realise of how God has loved us.

And later when you come forward to receive your ashes, to remind each and everyone of us of who we are – dust we came and dust we shall return. And that is our basis and our starting point. And when we are put with the sign of the cross, we bring together all our burdens, we bring together all things that have drifted us away from God. And when we are able to acknowledge of where we are, who we are in our relationship with God, we are called to embrace that identity that we have received through the cross by the baptism.

And by the baptism, we are called and we are reminded that we are made to be together with God because heaven is our destination. And by that sacrament of baptism, dear friends, the Lord brings us to his fold, allowing us to go through all those moments and obstacles of life that we are able to find where God is present.

And I am sure many of us, with so many obstacles and challenges of life, come from different different emotions, different different state of being, a sense of hopelessness, a sense of helplessness, a sense of loneliness, depression, whatever that we may be. And through that signing of the cross that you receive later, you are taking a step forward to embrace the crosses the Lord has given to you.

Because when we allow the grace of God to be at work, dear friends, and when we remember the relationship of who we are in our relationship with God, that God is the Creator and we are the Creatures, then we know that with God, we can do great things.

And the First Reading from the Prophet Joel reminds us, he says whatever circumstances or whatever situations that you are in:-

Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning. Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn, turn to the Lord your God again, for He is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness and ready to relent.

It is how the Lord invites us, dear friends, opening His heart to allow us to enter into His heart, into His presence, that we can be redeemed, we can find our salvation.

And today I am also glad that with all the Masses that we have had today, we have seen all the three services that we had has been full. And that tells us, dear friends, that deep in our hearts, whether we come to church regularly or not, it tells us that all of us have this desire to come back to a deeper relationship with God. Because we are designed to be together with God. And with so many of you coming to receive that ashes, the sign of the cross, to remind you of who you are, allow that step forward that you take later be an invitation for you to grow deeper in your relationship.

Because when you grow in a relationship, dear friends, with God who calls you to come back to Him with all your heart and He is ready to receive you with His embrace of love, how are you responding to that invitation and the love that the Father has for you?

And the Responsorial Psalm today invites us and tells us:-

Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Lent, dear friends, is not a time that we look at our sins and wallow ourselves in self pity. But it is an opportunity for us to receive the grace of God, to receive the love of God during this moment that He has given to us, to acknowledge that we are made to be together with God. In whatever obstacles and challenges of life, whatever it may have been, it is a reminder that the Lord loves you. It is a reminder that the Lord invites to walk together with Him.

And when we listen during this time of Lent, it is an invitation for us to open our hearts to receive His embrace of love, to listen to the voice that He has invited us into. And the Pope in his message, he invites us to listen, listen to God, whether is it in scriptures, whether it is in our daily life, whether is it in our workplace, to listen to the experiences of life that you have so that He is able to draw you and open your eyes of faith so that you can embrace His love.

And the second thing that He invites us to do is to rise up and not be afraid.

And sometimes, dear friends, when we approach this God who loves us, we are often feeling too inadequate to be in His presence. But today, He invites us, invites us to step forward so that we are called His sons and daughters once again. And the church has so many ways that you can encounter Him, by the acts of charity, by the work of mercy, by prayer, by fasting. These are general ways that we can receive His embrace of love.

The Sacrament of Confession is also an opportunity where you truly truly can experience the love and mercy of God. The church, dear friends,as you will see later as well with the Love Squad coming together to give you different different scenarios of how God can be made present, we ask you to listen, to open your heart to listen to the promptings of God and to rise up and not be afraid because together you must come better of this spiritual mountain that you are climbing. That journey that you have taken must allow you to embrace life with more conviction, with more joy and to be at peace to where the Lord is calling you and inviting you.

Let us pray, dear friends, let us pray that this moment of grace that the church has given to us in this season of Lent may be a moment where we are drawn into God’s embrace, to take the necessary step forward, to cling to His promises in our lives that we are able to find new life, find new meaning as we enter to this passion, the death and the resurrection that comes together at Easter.

Because the peak of that mountain, dear friends, the climax of that mountain is the whole Easter experiences because God is present in each and every one of our lives. God is present in every circumstances of live, our experience so flive.

And let us open our eyes, open our eyes of faith to listen, to rise up and to not be afraid.

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