Ash Wednesday falls on March 5th, 2025, and marks the start of the Lenten season, which will last 40 days and culminate on Holy Thursday, April 17th. We Catholics will receive ashes on our foreheads on or after the Ash Wednesday service. This ritual symbolizes that we are beginning a Lenten journey to meditate on Jesus’ life, particularly his suffering and death on the cross for us.
We could ask ourselves, “What do we do as we embark on this Lent journey?” To answer our question, I’d like to begin with a question asked during the code test for a driving permit in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: “The act of turning your head and checking your blind spot before changing lanes, driving away from a curb, or merging your vehicle into traffic is”? There are four possibilities, and I must choose the correct one. Among the four possibilities, I choose the one that I know is correct, which reads “A good driving habit.”
In the gospel of Ash Wednesday, Jesus gives us three acts to perform during Lent: ‘give charity, pray, and fast’. Jesus also mentions two ways to do them; we can choose which one we like. He describes how the Pharisees and Scribes give alms, pray, and fast so that they might be seen and praised by the public, which Jesus refers to as a hypocritical manner of doing things. We don’t want to be hypocrites, yet we sometimes are. In other words, we pledge to be good and do the right thing, yet we always do the wrong thing and act inappropriately toward others.
On the other side, Jesus tells his disciples and us today, and I believe that is the best way to cope throughout Lent. When we donate alms, pray, and fast, let us not be hypocrites, for hypocrisy will undermine our faith, poison our hearts, and ruin our Lenten journey. There is no other way to conduct these actions except via Jesus, as he states in John 14:6: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me’. Amen
Fr. Lomano Kauvaetupu, MSC
