Return To Your God
A HOMILY FOR ASH WEDNESDAY, EVENING PRAYER
Tonight, we are invited to pray so that each and every one of us may undertake a “lenten journey of true conversion.” To begin by first asking God to create and make in us new and contrite hearts AND To give us perfect remission and forgiveness. Lent is a personal and community pilgrimage of conversion and spiritual renewal. Ash Wednesday is considered the “door” to Lent, marking the first day and beginning of forty days of preparation in the wilderness.
The liturgy for this day is accompanied by a symbolic rite, an exclusive gesture proper to this day, the imposition of ashes upon the forehead. What is its most significant meaning? Well, to begin with, It isn’t merely ritualistic. It isn’t just an external sign. Instead, the outward sign is meant to stir something very deep in our hearts.
The mark of ashes is given as an inward sign of conversion and repentance, it is sacramental, in that the outward sign is signifying an invisible, inward reality. This is why, in a short while, when receiving the ashes on our head, you will hear a clear invitation to conversion expressed in these words: “Remember, man, that you are dust and unto dust, you will return.” Meaning, your life is but a fleeting moment, therefore, turn from your errors and return unto your God. Every aspect of tonight’s liturgy is calling us to repent, “to lament our sins and acknowledge our wretchedness.” As we have already prayed from the Ash Wednesday Collect.
Ash Wednesday pronounces the beginning of a forty-day Lenten fast, which isn’t done for outward or bodily benefit. Not at all! The purpose of fasting from food and drink is to take mastery over the most basic impulses of the flesh: hunger and thirst. You see, the outward discipline of fasting is the first step in taking on the unholy desires and appetites which reside in the soul.
There is a connection between taking command of the basic desires of the flesh and learning to not only break but to put to death the stronghold of sin. But, what is first and most necessary is repentance. “Out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord,” Jonah called from the depths of despair, on the precipice of Sheol, for God to save him from the belly of death.
Just as the sorrow and lamentation of the Israelites who cried for God to save them from Pharaoh’s Egypt. And you, who were once dead in trespasses and sins called upon the name of the Lord, were saved by God, who redeemed you from the slavery of sin and purified you through the waters of baptism, who now, as he did in the desert, feeds you with Jesus Christ, heavens true manna.
But the cry of Psalm 130, which was the first canticle sung this evening, is not a cry “to be saved,” in the sense of what we would understand as the moment of conversion and salvation. Rather, it is the cry of God’s children who have fallen away, who have pursued lesser loves, of one who has sinned against the Father. “Out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord, Lord, hear my voice.” It is the cry of the prodigal brought to his senses in a pig trough, who sees the error of his sinful ways and declares, “I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.”
“Out of the deep have I called to thee O Lord.” This is the cry of one who finds him or herself in the depths of sorrow and suffering over transgressions. And though we might not see a need for such medicine or take offense to the diagnosis, we all need to come clean, so to speak, to acknowledge as we prayed in the Collect, “our wretchedness” before God.
Friends, we all desire healing. The healing of conscience. The healing of the soul. For every wayward child longs to be forgiven by their Father. Well, beloved, hear this and take heart: The Lord overlooks and forgives the sins of those who repent and return to the God of all mercy. My friends, mercy awaits each and every prodigal.
Hear my son, listen, my daughter, return tonight from that far country. Child of God, return to your God. The prayers, psalms, scriptures, and every beautiful aspect of tonight’s liturgy are given to draw you into the loving mercy of the Lord. With humility, soberness, and honesty, acknowledge your sins. Be not afraid, for God’ hatest nothing that he has made’ and ‘whose nature and property are always to have mercy and forgiveness’ for, as the psalmist declares, ‘with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.”
Therefore, do not delay, but come and acknowledge your sins before Him. And having acknowledged them, lament over them. In other words, allow your heart to be broken by your brokenness, and let the bitter tears of sorrow flow.
Dear brothers and sisters, while we prepare to receive Ashes on our heads as a sign of conversion and repentance, let us open our hearts to the merciful love of God. May our Lent be marked by more frequent reading of His Word, by the intensity in prayer, by an austere and penitential lifestyle. Friends, let the love of God be an incentive to daily conversion and to sincere love towards our brothers and sisters, especially those who are poor in spirit and in the belly of despair. Let us pray,
Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen+
