Sermon: Ash Wednesday
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Ash Wednesday, St Paul’s Cathedral. “Only the silent celebrate deeply.” “Only the silent celebrate deeply.”
Those words were spoken many years ago by the late Brother Roger of Taize. When I discovered those words I found them to be very powerful. They are words I come back to often as I acknowledge once again that I am called into silence in order to be aware of God’s presence and to learn again to be grateful for God’s many gifts. I can only celebrate and give thanks to God when I do have times of silence in my life.
We want to celebrate, want to be joyful. I often ask groups of people what their favourite line from the Gospels is, every time someone says John 10:10, “I have come so that you may have life and have it to the full.” These next forty days are to remind us that God invites us to live life to the full….to live the life of the Risen Jesus. This will not happen unless we enter into silent prayer.
We are invited in Lent into silence, a time in which the Church invites us to ponder deeply on the Word of God. Ash Wednesday’s Gospel is that perennial call for authentic living of our faith- reminding us that acts of faith and devotion should be motivated by reverence, they are not for show. The only way we can live reverently is by allowing ourselves time of prayerful silence and reflection.
The words we probably associate most with Ash Wednesday are those words heard when the ashes are placed on our foreheads, either “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return’ or “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” The first could sound like a threat, the second like a command, but in actual fact they are both invitations.
The first is an invitation to remember who we really are before God, to reflect prayerfully on who we are …….”When you pray,” said Jesus, “go to your own inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” When you and I have the courage to go deep into our hearts in this Lenten season, when we have the courage to be silent and let God reveal to us that we are loved in spite of our sin and selfishness, then we will celebrate deeply.
The second is an invitation too, an invitation to live the Gospel, an invitation to step aside and discover our self-centredness and self-seeking, and invitation to make the decision to turn away from sin and live the Gospel. We cannot believe in the Gospel unless we take the time to listen – to listen today and each of the forty days of Lent- to listen and ponder in silence.
One of the Lenten prayers says….”Each year you give us this joyful season, so that we may prepare to celebrate the Paschal mystery with minds and hearts renewed.” Probably most of us don’t think of Lent as a joyful season, it’s a Penitential Season…...and it is…….but if Penance brings us closer to God then this must be joyful. If our minds and hearts are renewed • through prayer and reflection, • through thinking less about ourselves and more about others, • through fasting…..in order to focus and direct our minds to God then Lent must be a time of joy and deep peace. We are invited to pay closer attention to the Word of God, closer attention to what God is saying to our hearts and minds so that they will be renewed. A careful pondering of God’s word is a great resource for the renewal of our minds and hearts in this joyful season.
As Christians we live in the eternal “Now” which is where God is present to us. The Word of God spoken to us by St Paul today reminds us that “NOW is the acceptable time, NOW is the day of salvation.” We have no other moment than this, THIS is the moment for turning to God, for listening for God to speak. The past is gone, the future is before us. Today is Ash Wednesday and we have not been here before, last year life was different for each one of us, last year we were different…the invitation is for TODAY.
NOW is the time to “go to your own inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” NOW is the time for our minds and hearts to be renewed NOW is the time to be silent and to celebrate deeply.
