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杏MAP导航: Ashes ‘bring us back to reality’

In his homily prepared for Mass on Ash Wednesday, read out by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, 杏MAP导航 Francis says that the imposition of ashes reminds us to “look within ourselves” and remember our fragility – “from dust we are created, and to dust we shall return.”

By Joseph Tulloch

Ashes “revive in us the memory of what we are”, but also “the hope of what we will be”.

That was how 杏MAP导航 Francis started his homily for this year’s Ash Wednesday liturgy, held in Rome’s Basilica of Saint Sabina.

As the 杏MAP导航 is currently in hospital receiving treatment for bilateral pneumonia, his homily was read out by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

Speaking off the cuff before delivering the homily, Cardinal De Donatis invited those present to listen to 杏MAP导航 Francis'  words for the occasion and said, "We feel deeply united with him in this moment, and we thank him for the offering of his prayer and his sufferings for the good of the entire Church and the whole world."

Cardinal De Donatis delivers 杏MAP导航 Francis' homily for Ash Wednesday Mass
Cardinal De Donatis delivers 杏MAP导航 Francis' homily for Ash Wednesday Mass   (VATICAN MEDIA Divisione Foto)

Human fragility

The 杏MAP导航 began by focusing on the ways that the imposition of ashes reminds us of deeper realities about ourselves.

“We bow our heads in order to receive the ashes”, he said, “as if to look at ourselves, to look within ourselves. Indeed, the ashes help to remind us that our lives are fragile and insignificant: we are dust, from dust we were created, and to dust we shall return.”

This fragility takes many forms, the 杏MAP导航 said: weariness, weaknesses, fears, failures, failed dreams, illness, poverty, suffering, and, of course, mortality.

Although we sometimes try to flee these realities, 杏MAP导航 Francis said, the imposition of ashes “reminds us of who we are”.

This is good for us, he stressed – it helps prevent narcissism, and brings us back to reality, making us “more humble and available to one another”.

Ash Wednesday Mass at Santa Sabina
Ash Wednesday Mass at Santa Sabina   (VATICAN MEDIA Divisione Foto)

Our hope

While ashes remind us of our fragility, however, 杏MAP导航 Francis said, they also remind us of our reasons for optimism.

“The ashes remind us,” the 杏MAP导航 said, “of the hope to which we are called in Jesus, the Son of God, who has taken upon himself the dust of the earth and raised it to the heights of heaven.”

Such hope is important, 杏MAP导航 Francis said, because, without it, we risk “passively enduring the fragility of our human condition” and, in the face of our own mortality, “sinking into sadness and desolation”.

杏MAP导航 Francis brought his homily to a close with an exhortation to “return to God with all our hearts”.

“Let us place Him at the centre of our lives,” the 杏MAP导航 said, “so that the memory of what we are — fragile and mortal as ashes scattered upon the wind — may finally be filled with the hope of the Risen Lord.”

Preparing for Holy Mass on Ash Wednesday at Santa Sabina
Preparing for Holy Mass on Ash Wednesday at Santa Sabina   (VATICAN MEDIA Divisione Foto)

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05 March 2025, 17:45