Ash Wednesday

“Only God can forgive sins.” These are the words the enemies of Jesus used to accuse him of blasphemy. Unknowingly, they were acknowledging that he was God.  The basic element of the message of Jesus was that he could forgive sins. He did it all the time. Even his last words were about forgiveness: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Before he died and after his resurrection, Jesus transferred that power of forgiveness to The Twelve, who in turn handed it on to the Church. We continue to forgive sins and proclaim mercy through our sacraments.

Everyone old enough to know the difference between right and wrong is a sinner. Only Jesus and his mother were without sin. Everyone else has felt that pang of anxiety when we have done something wrong.

There’s a word for that. At the very end of this Mass, after the final prayer and before the blessing, the priest extends his hands over the people and says a short prayer that contains that word.

He begins “Pour out a spirit of compunction. O God…” I’ve seen that word compunction before but really didn’t know what it meant. So I went to the Oxford English Dictionary and looked it up. It means to feel a sudden sense of regret for having done something wrong. It is described as a feeling as if someone had punctured a balloon with a needle.

At the same time compunction means to feel sorrow for the suffering of others, especially those whom we have hurt. There’s no such thing as a private sin. By hurting ourselves or others, we add to the collective misery if the world.

Pope Francis has declared this a Year of Mercy. The Latin word for mercy is “misericordia.” “Cor” means heart and “miseria” means what it sounds like, misery. To give one’s heart to the miserable is to be merciful. Misery is something below even poverty. To be in misery is to feel utterly alone and abandoned. God gives his heart to those in misery and expects us to do the same.

We are not used to that. We prefer to think of the poor as those without money. That is a noble act, but it does not help those whose lives are completely without hope or help.

Before we can help the miserable, we need to have clear consciences about our own sins.

All of the sacraments, including this one, are encounters with God’s mercy. But there is one sacrament that is the primary source of mercy and that is Reconciliation or Confession. Every Catholic is supposed to go to confession at least once a year. Over the next three Thursdays, everyone will be given an opportunity to receive this sacrament. You will be given details during your theology classes. While non-Catholics may not receive this sacrament, they can receive a blessing. God doesn’t love only Catholics.

Today is Ash Wednesday, a reminder of something we would rather not think about. We are dust and to dust we shall return. Most people don’t even want to say the word “death.” Over the last several years, I have noticed a strange development. When a person dies, it is announced in the local newspaper in what is called an obituary. I checked yesterday’s Idaho Statesman and 55 names were listed in the obituary section. Of those, 31 were said to have “passed away” and only 24 were said to have died. Both mean the same thing, of course, but our modern world has become expert in denial of anything that disturbs our sensitivities.

Many live their lives as if God doesn’t exist. That makes death an even more terrifying thought. Without God, there is no mercy. Without God, there is no forgiveness of sins. Without God, evil appears to triumph over good.

We now have 40 days to turn our hearts to where they are supposed to be: we are to bring mercy to those who are miserable. This is not sentimentality, it is survival. We do not want the 21^st Century to be worse that the last one. So far, we have made a rather poor beginning.

Lent is not primarily about giving up bad habits, although that’s a good thing.  Rather, Lent is about accepting and giving mercy.

Pope Francis has emphasized something that goes back even to the times of the Bible.  Somewhere along the way, people concentrated on the justice of God.  According to a rather simplistic notion, God is supposed to punish the bad and reward the good.  That is justice, not mercy.

When the time comes to return to dust, we will encounter God face to face.  It is then that we will see mercy face to face.  We will also understand that the justice of God is mercy.

Before that inevitable realization, we will have also understood that during our time on Earth, only God can forgive sins.  That is not what God does, it is who God is.

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