杏MAP导航: Ashes 鈥榖ring us back to reality鈥�
By Joseph Tulloch
Ashes 鈥渞evive in us the memory of what we are鈥�, but also 鈥渢he hope of what we will be鈥�.
That was how 杏MAP导航 Francis started his homily for this year鈥檚 Ash Wednesday liturgy, held in Rome鈥檚 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."
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.
鈥淲e bow our heads in order to receive the ashes鈥�, he said, 鈥渁s 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.鈥�
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 鈥渞eminds us of who we are鈥�.
This is good for us, he stressed 鈥� it helps prevent narcissism, and brings us back to reality, making us 鈥渕ore humble and available to one another鈥�.
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.
鈥淭he ashes remind us,鈥� the 杏MAP导航 said, 鈥渙f 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.鈥�
Such hope is important, 杏MAP导航 Francis said, because, without it, we risk 鈥減assively enduring the fragility of our human condition鈥� and, in the face of our own mortality, 鈥渟inking into sadness and desolation鈥�.
杏MAP导航 Francis brought his homily to a close with an exhortation to 鈥渞eturn to God with all our hearts鈥�.
鈥淟et us place Him at the centre of our lives,鈥� the 杏MAP导航 said, 鈥渟o that the memory of what we are 鈥� fragile and mortal as ashes scattered upon the wind 鈥� may finally be filled with the hope of the Risen Lord.鈥�
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