Homily for Ash Wednesday Year C (4)

Homily for Ash Wednesday Year C

Theme: Lent, a period of reconciliation

By: Fr Cyril Unachukwu CCE

Homily for Wednesday March 2 2022

It is always a beautiful experience to have an opportunity to go back into ourselves, to

Homily for Ash Wednesday Year C

Theme: Lent, a period of reconciliation

By: Fr Cyril Unachukwu CCE

Homily for Wednesday March 2 2022

 

It is always a beautiful experience to have an opportunity to go back into ourselves, to critically look at the past, to faithfully examine the opportunities of the present and to hopefully re-strategise to acquire the promises of the future. The Season of Lent is always a wonderful opportunity to achieve these ends in our lives as Christians and in our respective communities as sons and daughters of God. Achieving these ends, we solidify our relationship with God and we improve the quality of our relationship with each other. May our Lenten Journey be fruitful; Amen.

The Season of Lent is a period of auto-formation and self-critic. This is symbolised in the Liturgical Rites of the blessing and imposition of ashes which reminds us that we are nothing without God. It is God who gives value to all our human achievements and aspirations. Life itself when cut off from God loses its ultimate value and significance. The various disciplines of the Lenten Season are geared towards making us achieve the Proximate Goal of the Christian Life which is similitude to Christ, in view of our realisation of its ultimate goal which is Eternal Life with God. Without the grace of God, the achievement of these goals is impossible. Luckily for us, the grace of God is always available and accessible to us. Our responsibility is to cooperate with the graces that He offers us. The most concrete signs of our cooperation with the graces of God are the ability to abstain from sin, to pray, to fast and to be most fervent in doing both the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. These disciplines are to be carried out according to the mind of God who wishes that we do them in a secret way in such a way that “our Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward us” (Matthew 6:1-6,16-18). With the advancement in Technology and the various means of communication and Social Media, there is a growing danger of an empty public Spirituality that seeks to bring everything to the public, without a corresponding internal transformation. No matter how much vainglory this form of spirituality brings to us, it can never totally exclude the emptiness and fruitlessness that go with it. God is encountered most in the innermost spheres of our hearts. The Season Lent reminds us of this fact.

One of the best known fruits of the proper exercise of the Lenten Disciplines is reconciliation; reconciliation with God and with our brothers and sisters. Hence, the Season of Lent is a period of Reconciliation. The First Reading (Joel 2:12-18) was very clear in inviting us to walk the path that leads to reconciliation; “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.” God is ever ready to have us reconciled with Him. He wishes us also to desire and seek reconciliation with Him. Only a reconciled person can fittingly celebrate the Paschal Mysteries of Christ at Easter. Reconciliation in this sense means making a special encounter with the mercy of God; it means restoring the friendship that exists between us and God which often times we damage by our waywardness. In such an encounter, we not only receive mercy from God, but we are transformed by our experience of God’s mercy that we become merciful towards our brothers and sisters; we become missionaries of mercy. This remains the proper way to respond to the summons of the Second Reading (2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2), “be reconciled to God.”

Heavenly Father, may our Lenten Journey this year never be in vain. May Your Holy Spirit guide and lead us, that we may walk with Christ through this dolorous passage as to be vested with the glory of His Paschal Mysteries; Amen. Wishing you a Spirit-filled Lenten Observance;

Fr Cyril Unachukwu CCE

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