13 February 2013 Ash Wednesday On the requisite dispositions for Lent First disposition: “Humility. Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return.” (cf Gen 3:19) Who uttered these words? God himself, some seven-thousand years ago. To whom did he address them? To Adam, our first parent, as soon as the sentence of death had been pronounced on him and his posterity in punishment for his sin -- “’Because you have eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the earth in your work’, said the Lord. ‘In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return to the earth from which you were taken; for dust you are, and unto dust you shall return.’” (Gen 3:19) Why did God add these last words, which do not increase in any way the punishment already given? Doubtless, it was to subdue and annihilate the pride of Adam; and inspire him with such deep humility as would dispose his heart to admirable penance. Thus we see that Adam, who had begun to excuse himself, remained silent, but accepted the penance imposed; and persevered in it, humble, penitent, and resigned for nine-hundred years. This penance pleased God, and our first parent was saved by it through the merits of the future Redeemer. We have sinned in Adam, we have sinned also; we are very guilty. We have great need of doing penance, of imploring pardon. God is ready to pardon us; but humility is the first feeling God seeks in the heart of a sinner and a conviction of his own unworthiness. The first disposition then which we ought to achieve and in which to persevere during Lent -- a time of universal penance -- is a profound humility, arising from the knowledge of our nothingness and our sins. This must be the principal merit of our works of penance. Second disposition: ‘Compunction.’ Who repeats the same words God pronounced in the Garden of Eden? Our holy Mother Church through her ministers. And to whom does she address them? To each one of us, to all the faithful who assemble in the house of God. When? At the moment our foreheads are marked with ashes, the emblem of death and penance: as if saying, “O man, whoever you may be, remember you must die and become like this dust, because of sin. ... if you do not do penance for your sins, you will only rise again from the dust of the tomb to pass, in body and soul, into a place of eternal torments.” The Church obliges us to listen to those grave and terrific truths only to inspire us, from the first day of Lent, with holy and deep compunction of heart. If our works of mortification and penance are accompanied by sentiments of true contrition and humility, they will be pleasing before God, for “a contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps 51:17). Lacking these attitudes, we ought to fear that all Lenten practices, even the most painful, will be useless. Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp80-82 On acquiring and becoming confirmed in humility If we desire the friendship of any one, we avoid what could hurt him. If, then, we desire humility to describe our life, we must beware that nothing in our thoughts, words, or actions would hint of pride or nurture vanity. Consider these: 1) avoid complacency about past good actions; but rather contrast them to our sins; 2) meet temptations of pride by interior acts of humility; 3) avoid speaking of ourselves, either well or ill, without sufficient cause; 4) seek not to dominate in conversation, or to impose our opinion on others; and 5) we must avoid ostentation, immodesty, pretence and anything that wounds humility. Moral virtues are never infused. We must acquire them for ourselves, and diligently practise them. Thus, the maxims: ‘There is no humility without humiliations.’ Or ‘humiliation is the best way to learn humility’. What hinders us is a want of courage to deny ourselves. God, however, takes pity on us, and sends us humiliations. These may come as mental sufferings, doubts, scruples, painful and humiliating temptations which oblige us to seek help. Or debilitating sickness makes us useless when we had thought ourselves indispensable. It may be some cruel calumny which attacks our reputation. A painful misunderstanding arises despite our most anxious efforts. God permits them for our good, for aspiring to a high degree of humility. Instead of complaining, profit from them. Cast down, pray as King David did: ‘It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me.’ Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp376-8 Lent, a time for coming closer to God We are at the beginning of Lent, a time of penance and interior renewal to enable us to prepare for Easter. (cf Second Vatican Council, “Sacrosanctum Concilium”, 109) The Church’s liturgy unceasingly invites us to purify our souls and to begin again. “Yet even now”, says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.” (Joel 2:12-3) As the priest places ashes on our forehead, he reminds us of the words, after original sin. ‘Memento homo, quia pulvis es’ “... remember man that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Gen 3:19) Remember! Despite this reminder we sometimes forget that without God we are nothing. “... all that remains of man’s greatness is that little pile of dust, in a dish, at one side of the altar, on Ash Wednesday. It is what the Church marks us with ... as though with our own substance.” (J Leclerq, “A Year with the Liturgy”) God wants us to be detached from things of the earth and return to him. He wants us to abandon sin, which makes us grow old and die, and return to the fount of life and joy. “Jesus Christ himself is the most sublime grace of the whole of Lent. It is he who presents himself to us in all the wonderful simplicity of the Gospel.” (John Paul II, “Ash Wednesday Homily”, 28 Feb 1979) To turn our hearts to God (conversion) is to be prepared to use all the means to live as he expects us to live: absolutely sincere with ourselves and try not “to serve two masters” (cf Mt 6:24). We must love God with our whole heart and soul; flee from any deliberate sin. Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:1-2 Recovery “We have to love the Blessed Virgin Mary more. We will never love her enough. “Love her a lot! It shouldn’t be enough for you to put up pictures for her, and greet them, and say aspirations. You should learn to offer her, in your strenuous life, some small sacrifice each day, to show her your love, and to show her the kind of love that we want the whole human race to proclaim for her.” Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge” 527 • Our Lady ‘du Four Chaud’, at Bourges, so-called because, in the year 545, a man is said to have shut up his son in a hot oven, because he had received baptism and communicated on Easter Sunday; he was taken out sound and whole, through the protection of Our Lady. A church was built to the Blessed Virgin in memory of this event.—(Annales de France sous Childebert.) ( “Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of Pellevoisin, France (1876). (www.divine will.org/feastofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html) • Our Lady of Pellevoisin. (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html) • Our Lady of the Scapular of the Sacred Heart. Bourges, France 1876. (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html) • Our Lady of the Hot Oven (Bourges, France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (http://mariedenazareth.com) • Our Lady of Hot Oven / “Notre Dame de Bourges”. Church in Bourges, France. An alchemist analyzes (in French) the stained glass windows of the church. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)