Fresh Starts & Second Chances

 

Deacon Dave · Fresh Starts & Second Chances

Homily for Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025. Book of the Prophet Joel 2:12-13. Theme: Fresh Starts & Second Chances 

 Of all the special days within the Church Year, Ash Wednesday seems to draw the largest number of people. Why is that? It’s not a holy day of obligation and it’s always midweek of course…so why do people flock to churches in such great numbers? I think it might be because the Holy Season of Lent, which gets its kick-off on Ash Wednesday, is all about second chances and fresh starts. And who among us doesn’t want a second chance? Who wouldn’t want the opportunity for a fresh start? 

 Our first reading today from the prophet Joel tells us that our hope for second chances and new beginnings is based on the fact that God is “gracious and merciful…slow to anger, rich in kindness and relenting in punishment.” As we begin the spiritual journey of Lent, the prophet encourages us to return to the Lord with all our hearts and to work on our ongoing interior conversion through a commitment to spiritual practices. 

And in today’s Gospel, Jesus echoes this message of the prophet Joel and gives us His teaching on three spiritual practices that are known as the “three pillars of Lent”. These are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Notice that Jesus’s words assume that we will be carrying out these spiritual practices. For He did not say “IF” you do them but instead He used the more certain terminology of “WHEN” you do them. This clearly tells us that they are not optional for us, His disciples. So as we put together our personal spiritual programs for Lent, let’s be sure to include something from each one of these pillars so that in some way, shape or form prayer, fasting and almsgiving will each find a place in our preparations for Easter. 

 But before moving on to thinking about what we will do for Lent, let’s stay here at Ash Wednesday and consider for a moment the words we hear upon receiving the blessed ashes on our foreheads. They set the tone for the 40 days ahead of us and can give us a clue as to what each one of us needs to do in order to deepen our relationship with God, strengthen our commitment to Christ, and be of better service to our brothers and sisters in need. 

 There are two short Scripture verses that can be said when imposing ashes. The first is, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” This verse is from Genesis 3:19. The ashes help us to recall that death came into our human experience as a result of the free choice of Adam and Eve to commit the original sin and that we can choose a different path than they did by our own free decision to leave sin behind. These words also summon us to never forget that our lives on planet Earth are temporary. Our immortal souls, that is the part of us that is really who we are as persons, survive our physical deaths. Our time here is just the first stage of the overall story of our personal eternal existence. Where we are going to spend our eternity is up to each one of us and Lent allows us to reorganize our priorities with this in mind. Ash Wednesday, then, is meant to be the kick-off to a new and improved lifestyle that will lead us to eternal happiness. 

 The second Ash distribution verse is this, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” This is a direct quote from the lips of Jesus Christ that has been recorded for us in the Gospels. These words formed the very heart and soul of His teachings and summarized His message of salvation. So a good and helpful spiritual practice for us during this holy season would be to simply memorize these three words - Repent… Believe… Gospel - because they set the tone and give us direction for the fresh start and the second chance that we are hoping for during Lent. 

 “Repent” means to make a 180 degree turn in our attitudes and behavior. It means to make a genuine commitment of concrete change in how we think, how we speak and how we act. It reminds us that “talk is cheap” and that we prove our new outlook by the solid evidence of changed behavior. 

 “Believe” means to trust. When we say that we “believe in someone” it means that we have confidence in them. So, where are we to place our trust? In Jesus Christ, our Merciful Savior. Trust is the fruit of a relationship that is rooted in love and Jesus has earned this trust from us by loving us even to the point of dying for our sake. 

 “Gospel” means “good news”. And the good news is this: that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). In dying for us, Jesus destroyed the power of sin to control us and our destiny. And by His rising from the grave, He conquered the dark gloominess and finality of death, transforming it into the pathway to eternal life for those who trust in Him. 

 So, there we have our foundation for a fresh start and our hope for a second chance. No matter how we have been living up to now, Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent are a reminder that we can make a fresh start and have a second chance; that we can always pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin following Jesus all over again.