Sr. Brenda Hermann, MSBT reflects on the Gospel for Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024. You can find the Gospel Reading by clicking this link.

Imagine this conversation…

“Sweetheart!! Happy Valentine’s Day! I love you so much that I have a great surprise for you… We are going out tonight… to Church. Go change into your finest sack cloth. Let’s get our money together to give to the poor! How about we cancel our reservation to Chez Louis and go to the soup kitchen sponsored by the parish? We can go to Mass first and get ashes. What do you say, honey?”

What would you say?

In today’s scripture, it strikes me that Jesus tells us a few things not to do when we fast, give alms, and sacrifice; don’t be gloomy, don’t neglect how you look, don’t act at looking holy or posture so that others see how you are wonderful and pious. Don’t let one hand know what the other is doing, in other words, make certain that your actions match your words.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the greatest season of love. The ashes that we receive may symbolize grief, as we have sinned and caused division. However, they also symbolize the greatest first act of a love play of sacrifice, penance, repentance, forgiveness, and deep sorrow. Anyone who loves or has loved knows well that these are most often the foundation of our human love.

In our daily lives we meet people who love and are those who are bereft of love, people who are hungry for food and for the Word of God. We meet sadness and those searching for happiness in all the wrong places. Ash Wednesday, on Valentine’s Day, underscores these tensions— there is no love without suffering, there is no transformative suffering without love.

Let us pray for a change of heart during this season of Lent. The Monday after Easter is All Fools Day. No one on earth is as foolish as one deeply in love with another!