SPEAKER_00: Today you've walked into church and you choose to let someone put ashes on your forehead.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: In a world obsessed with image, success, youth, and control, you voluntarily step up to be marked with dust.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because somewhere deep inside you know something.
SPEAKER_00: You know that promotions don't satisfy, the vacations don't fix it, distractions don't quiet it, endless hours of scrolling don't heal it.
SPEAKER_00: There's this restlessness in the human heart that no achievement can silence.
SPEAKER_00: Ash Wednesday names that restlessness.
SPEAKER_00: Return to me with all of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: The first reading tells us, not with part of your heart, but with not with the polished version, not with Sunday morning version, with all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Your ambition, your fear, your guilt, your hidden wounds, your exhaustion, your ego, your loneliness, all of it.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a time where everyone is ready to tear their clothes in outrage.
SPEAKER_00: We protest, we react, we criticize, we expose, we post, we cancel.
SPEAKER_00: But very few are willing to tear their own hearts open.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet Joel doesn't say, rend your neighbor's heart.
SPEAKER_00: He says, rend your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's different.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to diagnose what's wrong with the neighbor, what's wrong with the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's harder to let God diagnose what's wrong with me.
SPEAKER_00: Ash Wednesday is not about public performance, it's about interior honesty.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the radical truth: you cannot return to God on your own.
SPEAKER_00: If this were self-improvement, Lent would be a fitness challenge.
SPEAKER_00: If this was therapy, Lent then would be a journaling exercise.
SPEAKER_00: If this was moralism, Lent would be a checklist.
SPEAKER_00: This is, we're talking about grace.
SPEAKER_00: Grace that comes from God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Return to me, for I am gracious and merciful.
SPEAKER_00: God does not shout from the distance, he says it from the cross.
SPEAKER_00: St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says something almost shocking.
SPEAKER_00: He says, God made Christ to be sin for us.
SPEAKER_00: The innocent one stepped into our mess, steps into our shame and to our dysfunction, into our death.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't stand at a distance and criticize humanity.
SPEAKER_00: He entered into it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the price of your reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: The cross is not some religious decoration we wear around our necks.
SPEAKER_00: It's the cost of your rescue.
SPEAKER_00: So when we say return to God with all of your heart, we're not talking about joining a club.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about aligning your life with the one who gave it to you.
SPEAKER_00: The one who gave his life for you.
SPEAKER_00: And here is where it becomes uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: We often want God as an accessory, one thing among the many, there when we need it.
SPEAKER_00: We want faith to improve our lives, not to reorder them.
SPEAKER_00: We want inspiration, not surrender.
SPEAKER_00: But Lent is not about adding Jesus to your schedule.
SPEAKER_00: It's about placing him at the very center of your life, at the center of your business decisions, at the center of your relationships, at the center of how you use money, at the center of your sexuality, at the center of your ambition, and the center of your identity.
SPEAKER_00: He says to me, he says to us, return to me with all of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That means something has drifted.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's not dramatic, maybe it's subtle, a prayer life that has faded, not attending mass regularly, a conscience that became negotiable, a marriage that has become distant, a soul that has become numb to everything.
SPEAKER_00: And yet here you are, and that matters because faith is never solitary.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet calls the whole assembly, the elderly, the children, the bridegroom, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Conversion is not a private self-help journey.
SPEAKER_00: It is ecclesial, it is church, it's who we are.
SPEAKER_00: We walk together as a family.
SPEAKER_00: You're not meant to fight for your soul alone.
SPEAKER_00: The church is not a spiritual content provider, it's communion.
SPEAKER_00: Christ came to gather the scattered, to pull into one body, to remind us that we belong to something larger than ourselves, that truth lies outside of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And then St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says something urgent.
SPEAKER_00: Now is the acceptable time.
SPEAKER_00: Now is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Not someday, not when life slows down, not when I'm not so busy, not when things get easier.
SPEAKER_00: He says, right now.
SPEAKER_00: Because now is all you're guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00: One day someone will stand over your dead body and say, dust to dust.
SPEAKER_00: Today those words are not spoken as a threat.
SPEAKER_00: They're spoken as mercy.
SPEAKER_00: They cut through illusion.
SPEAKER_00: You're not infinite.
SPEAKER_00: Your time is not endless.
SPEAKER_00: Your opportunities are not permanent.
SPEAKER_00: So what are you building your life on?
SPEAKER_00: Reputation, control, security, pleasure, accumulation, approval.
SPEAKER_00: Ash Wednesday confronts all of that and whispers to you, none of that will last.
SPEAKER_00: But communion with God will.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus speaks of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in the gospel, and he warns against doing them for applause.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a culture that loves applause, is addicted to visibility, to image.
SPEAKER_00: But God works in secret.
SPEAKER_00: The Father who sees in secret.
SPEAKER_00: The real battle of Lent will not be external, it will be hidden.
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray when no one is watching?
SPEAKER_00: Will you fast when it's when it's not convenient?
SPEAKER_00: Will you give when it will cost you something?
SPEAKER_00: Because the reward is not admiration.
SPEAKER_00: The word is God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's the reward.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the beautiful paradox.
SPEAKER_00: The more you lose yourself for Him, the more you finally become yourself.
SPEAKER_00: The ashes you receive today are not only a sign of death, they are in the shape of a cross.
SPEAKER_00: Death and redemption intersect on your forehead.
SPEAKER_00: You are dust, but you are dust that's been loved by God, dust that has been redeemed by Christ, dust that is destined for resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: This Lent can be cosmetic or it can be transformational.
SPEAKER_00: Give your all these forty days.
SPEAKER_00: You can give up chocolate or you can surrender control.
SPEAKER_00: You can attend out of habit or you can return with your whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: No one here, absolutely no one, is far gone.
SPEAKER_00: No one here is too indifferent.
SPEAKER_00: No one here is beyond God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: But the door is not open forever.
SPEAKER_00: He says, return to me, not halfway, not cautiously, not politely, not someday, but with your whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: And if you do, if you dare to let Christ actually be at the center of your life, you will discover something this world cannot manufacture.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, you will have internal peace, you'll have more clarity than you have ever had.
SPEAKER_00: You will have freedom, you will have life.
SPEAKER_00: That's where this 40 day journey leads you.
SPEAKER_00: Not to ashes, but to resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Give your complete and total heart to Jesus this Lent.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.