2020 Ash Wednesday

Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin the season of Lent, the six weeks before Easter. And the point of this time, I think, as some people say, is that the church says to God, “We are sorry. We have not lived up to the ideals, the demands that you, Lord, have given us. We have failed and we are sorry, and we will try to do better.” The whole church says this. And we who are the church, the body of Christ, we each say as well, “I have sinned, Lord God, forgive me.” There are 40 days of Lent, as Jesus fasted for 40 days before he began his ministry, fasting in the desert. We put on ashes today, because in the Old Testament, when people were sorry for their sins, they put ashes on themselves as a sign of sorrow. We fast for two days at least during Lent.  Fasting means not eating between meals and having only one full meal. This is a church law for people ages 18 to 59 – those two days are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. People can add days if they wish... The traditional way for people to observe length is to give up some pleasure, such as going to the movies or eating dessert, things of that sort. …And people try to pray more. I suggest you try to say the Our Father three times a day at least, as a way of praying during Lent. On Sundays however, the things you gave up, you can use; if you have given up desserts, you can have dessert. Now, if you take away the Sundays, in six weeks you have only 36 days, which is why we begin Lent on this Wednesday - to add the four days. So, those are the observances of Lent. The purpose of Lent is to say we are sorry for our sins. The one thing that you should do during Lent is to examine your conscience seriously. And I would certainly urge you to go to Confession sometime before Easter. To examine one’s conscience; to look at your life seriously – to examine it for its bad things and for its good things; and to try to improve especially in the things that are bad. 

Illustration by Jose Soares

 
Jesus, in the Gospels, accuses his disciples of hardness of heart, of failing to understand what he is saying to them, of failing to understand themselves. Hardness of heart – it is something for us to fear, especially for ourselves. And now what I will say is really for our so-called adults here. This is a story that indicates the sort of thing that should worry us. As you know, in Auschwitz during the Second World War, many people, especially Jews, were killed, to get them out of the way, because they were considered inferior. It is called the Holocaust by the Jews. And it was a Holocaust. As you know, these people were gassed and their bodies were cremated. On one occasion, a group of women were going to the gas chambers. They were stripped naked; they had already suffered a great deal, and they knew that their time was at hand. One of these women was a dancer. I do not know if she was a ballet dancer or a cabaret dancer or what. I know the story because I read it in a book written by a Jewish Hungarian doctor who, because he was a doctor, was not taken immediately to the gas chamber, but was used for the experiments and for the medical needs of the people who ran the camp at Auschwitz. These women were being guarded by men with guns, Nazi soldiers, and one of them was the commander. And so to make fun of this woman, to mock her, they told her: “Dance. Dance for us.” And she did. She began to dance, and the soldiers laughed at her, mocked her, made fun of her. And the commander was so taken up with the humor that he saw in this situation, that she was able to approach him and grab his gun, and she shot him in the stomach. She, of course, was immediately shot dead by the other soldiers. The Hungarian doctor was asked now to take care of the now dying commander. And now this is the important thing. As he lay dying in his own blood, he said over and over, again and again: “What have I done to deserve this? Why is this happening to me?” Now, that would be spiritual blindness, to say the least. That would be hardness of heart – not to see your sins; to delude yourself, to be deceived about the wrong you have done. God willing, none of us here will ever commit so horrible a crime. But, nonetheless, we will sin. We should be aware of our duty, and admit our sin and to ask for pardon.