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Gospel Reflection for Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Today begins Lent. Many years ago, on a day like this, I saw a priest, who due to circumstances that are not relevant here, had to lead this celebration in a parish. He started his homily by saying, «Brothers, we are already in Easter.» You could say he was too early. But he had a point. We have emphasized Lent so much as a penitential time, a time to wear sackcloth and ashes and ask for forgiveness for our sins, that we have forgotten that the central meaning of Lent is to prepare to celebrate adequately the passion and resurrection of Jesus, his Easter, his passage from death to the triumph of life, which is our triumph.
So let’s see if we can start this Lent well. The focus should not be, cannot be, on our sins (we have an almost irresistible tendency to think that we are the center of the universe and even place our sins at the center). The focus should be on Jesus, on living with full awareness of what the last days of his mortal life were and, above all, the mystery of the resurrection: the glorious response of the Father to those who wanted to end Jesus and his message of the Kingdom forever.
The Gospel of this day proposes three means: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. These are traditional means. In fact, this gospel has been read on Ash Wednesday for centuries. Somehow it concentrates what should be most important in this time of Lent, which should be centered on conversion. This does not refer so much to the confession of sins but to taking the path of following Jesus. To do this, you must start by sharing what you have (almsgiving), meeting with Jesus (prayer, reading the Word), and setting aside many things that distract us from what is fundamental in our Christian life (fasting). All this will help us to celebrate with true joy and lived hope the Easter of Jesus. And our flesh will rise for life and for the Kingdom.