Ash Wednesday 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
March 2, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I was saying, today, the Holy Father Pope Francis, is asking us to fast and pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, whose homeland is under attack from Russia.

So, we remember in our prayers today all the innocents caught up in the fighting, and especially the little children. May God protect and strengthen them all and deliver them from the evil of this war.

So once again, today we are beginning the holy season of Lent.

And once more this year, we hear the words of the prophet Joel in our first reading: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping and mourning.”

Our Lord is inviting us today — to come home. Just as he does every year during Lent. “Return to me,” he says. And he speaks these words to us with such tender affection.

Our Lord wants us to be close to him, to give our hearts to him. So, this year, once again, we ask for the grace to hear Our Lord and to answer him, and to return to him with all our hearts.

I was reading one of the saints, as I was making my own preparations for Lent, and the saint said this, and I quote:

“I have decided not to let this Lent go by like rain on stones, leaving no trace. I will let it soak into me, changing me. I will be converted, I will turn again to the Lord and love him as he wants to be loved.”²
 
So my dear brothers and sisters, this is the attitude that we need, as we enter into this holy season. Let us not miss this beautiful opportunity that we have to grow in our relationship with Jesus,
to improve ourselves, to be converted more and more in the image of Jesus!

This is what our life is meant for. We are here to be changed,
to be transformed, to be converted.

Our Christian life is a journey of conversion. It is the work of a lifetime.

But what is beautiful, is that we are walking with Jesus. Every day. He is the One who calls us by name to follow him. He is the One who calls us to be holy as He is holy. And he is the One who promises to show us the way.

And today in the Gospel, Jesus gives us the secret, three pillars of the spiritual life — prayer, and fasting, and works of mercy.

As we know, these three practices should be part of our daily lives as Catholics. Praying every day; making sacrifices, little offerings to God; and being generous and merciful towards others. This is, my brothers and sisters, such a beautiful way to live.



Then, this Lent, I also would like to recommend the habit of making a daily examination of conscience.

It’s one the secrets of the saints. It is a brief, daily examination of conscience. And it is not difficult to do, it takes two minutes, at the end of every day.

So this examination is just a simple review of your day. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us, and to think about what blessings did we receive on that day? What good things we did? What are the ways we sinned or fell short?

So as we reflect on these questions, at the same times, we give thanks to God for his blessings, we tell him that we are sorry for our failures, and also we make little resolutions to do better the next day. 

It is a little, beautiful practice — the daily examination of conscience. And it is very useful in order to have this ongoing process of conversion in our lives.

So, maybe, usually we make resolutions for Lent, so it must be a one good, practical spiritual resolution that we make this year. Let’s give it a try!

Another practical idea for Lent that I wanted to share with you today, as we reflect on how important this Lenten season is in our daily life. Another practical idea is to be more intentional about being kind to other people. We need to start what Pope Francis calls “a revolution of tenderness.” ³

So just imagine what the world would be, imagine what our lives would be like — if we were all working to be more tender, more kind, treating others with patience and understanding, beginning with the people in our lives.

It would be amazing. And we can do it. It starts with each one of us! A revolution of tenderness.

So my brothers and sisters, being a Catholic, being a follower of Jesus, is the work of our lives, as I mentioned. It means beginning and beginning again. That’s what Lent is all about.

St. Paul tells us in the second reading: “Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Today is the acceptable day — to begin again! Let us not let this Lent go by, leaving no trace!

Let us return to God — let us commit ourselves again to love Jesus Christ, and to serve him with our all our hearts.

And let us ask our Blessed Mother Mary, the Queen of Peace, to intercede for our troubled world and to bring us peace and to help all of us to have a holy Lent and to give our whole hearts to her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.