HOMILY
Ash Wednesday – February 18, 2026
In just a few moments, we will conduct a strange ritual that has become synonymous with this day that begins the sacred season of Lent. Ashes – dust – will be placed on our foreheads in the shape of a cross and we will hear these sobering words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” On any other day, few of us could imagine participating in such a ritual. Today, we could not conceive of doing anything else.
For no matter our state in life, when pressed, we all understand the precariousness of this unique gift, don’t we? We all know how quickly life can pass and how our hearts so often wander from our center – from God. Pope Leo captured the reality of our lives best in his message to the Church for this sacred season. “Lent is a time in which the Church invites us to place the mystery of God back in the center of our lives, in order to find renewal in our faith and keep our hearts from being consumed by the anxieties and distractions of daily life.”
And so, with a bit of humility, we come to this place today and allow ourselves to be challenged – challenged to be vulnerable enough to acknowledge our need for a power bigger than ourselves – challenged to open our lives to God, to allow him to change our hearts and to walk more closely with him as we go forward from this place.
Recall the first words of scripture in today’s Liturgy of the Word shared a moment ago from the Old Testament prophet Joel. “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.”
Joel sets the stage not only for the season of Lent but for our response to the Lord’s call to discipleship. And he does so by calling us to change our lives – not merely by performing religious gestures and practices – but by peering intensely into our hearts to insure that our spirit – the core of our being – is honest and pure and open to the transforming power and presence of God – a God who doesn’t demand perfection but simply asks for honesty. “For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness and relenting in punishment.”
Saint Matthew, in today’s gospel, reinforces the words of the prophet Joel, as he calls us to pray, fast, and to give alms in support of the poor – not because such behavior will make us righteous – but because such acts for the true disciple of Jesus reflect the core of his mission that we all seek to embrace in our lives.
In these challenging times in which so many of our brothers and sisters are suffering, may the message of the scriptures remind us that the love of God which we profess by our presence in this church and the ashes imposed on our foreheads, finds its greatest expression in our lives through the love and service that we, in turn, extend to our neighbor, whomever he or she may be.
In a few hours, brothers and sisters, the ashes placed on our foreheads will smudge. They will fade. And by tonight, they will be gone. What will matter then will be our openness to the power of God – our willingness to allow God to change our hearts – and our resolve, as Pope Leo shared, “to make our communities places where the cry of those who suffer finds welcome, making us ready and eager to contribute to building a civilization of love.”