Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Ash Wednesday, March 6, 2019

As we receive the ashes on our foreheads, we take stock of the purpose of Lent: it is an exercise in cleansing and holy desire. It lasts forty days in imitation of the time Jesus spent in the desert before starting his public ministry. What is the purpose of Lent? It is to prepare us for a more effective involvement in our vocation as Christians. Our desires are far too small if we look for fulfilment only in what this world offers by way of transient satisfactions, but God wants us to have so much more; his very Self. During Lent we seek to tune in to higher desires our longing for God. In Matt 6:1-18, Jesus shows the way: prayer, fasting and almsgiving, the classic Lenten practices. Our eternity will be an eternal relationship with the living God in the Communion of Saints. That relationship begins in this life through prayer. While we should certainly enjoy food and the conviviality that often accompanies a good meal, we should also find a place for fasting, in order to sharpen our appetite for God. All of us resonate in some way to the ideal of almsgiving, could we perhaps do more to serve the needy, not so that people will consider us generous, but to imitate God’s generosity to us? God means to fill each of us with what is good; so cast out what is bad, and now is a favourable time to do so. Wishing you a spirit filled Lenten season. Shalom!