Ash Wednesday 2025

Joel 2:12-18; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Life is a journey that starts in the maternal womb and ends in the womb of the earth, but with a guarantee of resurrection for the children of God. The journey of life takes two vehicles, the body and the soul. To keep the vehicle of the body going, we need to work and eat every day. To keep the wolf from the door, we study hard in school to obtain degrees, and our degrees obtain jobs that require hard work in order to be paid salaries and all forms of remunerations. Neither money nor food comes easily; hard work is required to keep the body going. The vehicle of the soul functions in the opposite direction; it needs fasting, prayer, and almsgiving to keep it going. When embarked upon, the vehicle of the soul combines the two aspects of body and soul together. It makes the journey of life a journey beyond the maternal womb and the womb of the earth; it focuses on resurrection and eternity – from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday.

The statement of Joel, in our first reading, is a declaration that the Israelites had gone astray and needed to retrace their steps, to start out on a journeyto God: “return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning” (Joel 2:12). The very meaning of the prophet’s name is suggestive of what had gone amiss – “Joel” means “Yahweh is God”. In other words, among the many gods there were, there is only one who is authentic – he is Yahweh. Among the accusations leveled against Israel is the abandonment of sacrifices to God or the neglect of God: “The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord” (Joel 1:9, 13). In fact, the Israelites had gone so much astray from their God that Joel says this of them: “Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:17). The prophet Joel suggests that the search and journey back to God requires fasting and remorse, because it is something internal not external: “Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God” (Joel 2:13) – this is the requirement of Ash Wednesday!

The ashes of Ash Wednesday are commemorative of where we came from and where we are headed; they remind us that our bodies are dust, and to dust shall they return. Our salaries, degrees, and hard work can only sustain our bodies, but time will disintegrate our bodies and return them to the dust from where they were borrowed. But every ash is a testimony to some once-upon-a-time body or matter; it is a reminder of a physical existence obliged to return home, home where it came from – God himself. But there is a spiritual ash, one that is the evidence of destroyed vices and promotion of virtues. This ash runs a journey of 40 days every year; it is called Lent. It is a journey to acquire immortality; Ash Wednesday inaugurates this journey!

The symbolism of 40 days is important to underscore. The Bible tells us of the forty years of Israel’s wandering in the desert, but it culminated in their arrival in a Promised Land. To sustain that journey, Manna from heaven replaced normal food during that journey because it was a journey for God, with God present as pillar of cloud by day and column of fire at night. It was also a journey to God, unlike any other journey, because God sustained such a journey. Elijah journeyed 40 days to the mountain of God, Horeb. He encountered and spoke with God at the end of the journey. He was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah’s journey was unlike our usual journeys because it ended in God and immortality. Jesus spent 40 days in the company of God, beginning with the voice of God calling him his beloved Son, and the appearance of the Holy Spirit to lead him into the desert for an encounter with God, where Jesus encountered God, received power from him for his ministry, and God’s continued presence manifested itself through his miracles. Ash Wednesday is the beginning; an encounter with God is its point of arrival!

The Christian journey of Lent, for 40 days, is a purposeful journey. It has to be a journey towards God and the resurrection of the body from its attachment to earth and to receive the guarantee of immortality – to be in the company of God. The Eucharist of immortality replaces the Manna of the desert leading to the Promised Land, and it restores the Shekinah, God’s presence, among us. It is no longer an angel bringing food to Elijah to strengthen him for the journey to encounter God, it is a period of fasting from physical food in order to be filled with God’s strength to weather the temptations of life. Jesus dwells in all who receive his body and blood worthily – fasting is to fill oneself with God and not just food; this too is the message of Ash Wednesday!

The journey of the soul is a journey with God and not with human beings. In Jesus’ case, it was the Holy Spirit that led him on the journey into the wilderness; he was alone with God. For Elijah, it was the Spirit of God that led him to encounter God; no human being went with him. For the Israelites, it was a congregation led by God himself. It now makes sense, when our gospel today says that, “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your Heavenly Father” (Matthew 6:1). To travel to God is a personal and spiritual journey; people’s praises detract from such a journey. John puts it well when he says: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

The sacredness of almsgiving and the secrecy of fasting, as recommended by our gospel, connect the second reading of today with our gospel: “We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us”. We need to see beyond the physical and see God who rewards the sacrifices of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Every human being represents God, and it is God who wishes to reward those who treat him well – “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink . . .” (Matthew 25:34-35). It is the God whom we treat well in our neighbors, who sees our fasting – our nothingness – and rewards us. While fasting helps us to share in the pains of our brothers and sisters (God himself), our almsgiving relief them of those pains and make God present to them through our gifts and prayers.

Indeed, let the ashes on our forehead today be signs that we have passed from death to life. As it is the case in most African societies, ashes are reagents that quicken the process of conversion: to ripen our mangoes and other fruits, we cover then with ashes; to take out rust and bacterias, we use ashes. May the ashes we receive today strengthen our resolve for a holy life, kill and decay our vices, and take out all the rusts of our lives, amen!