Giving up Sin during Lent

Homily for Ash Wednesday

by Fr. Tommy Lane

The word “Lent” comes from an old English word that means “springtime,” so it reminds us of spring cleaning and the new life in nature during spring. This season of Lent is a time of special grace for us in which we want to do some spring cleaning in our lives and enjoy new life as a result. So, we have come here today to acknowledge that we are sinners. We want to clean up our lives during Lent. We want to leave sin behind and grow closer to the Lord. We want a change of heart this Lent.

The words of the Lord through the prophet Joel in our first reading are words that have special significance for us today as we begin this season of Lent; they are words that we can easily see the Lord speaking to us personally:

Yet 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.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
(Joel 2:12-13)

The words of Paul in our second reading to the Corinthians are also very relevant for us as we begin this season of Lent:

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. (2 Cor 5:20-21)

In the Scriptures when people left sin behind and turned over a new leaf, they used ashes to symbolize their repentance. Job said, “I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6) Daniel “turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” (Dan 9:3) Jesus said, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” (Matt 11:21; Luke 10:13). Therefore, in a spirit of repentance we will take ashes on our foreheads.

Sometimes people ask, “What are you doing for Lent?” There is one thing to give up during Lent—sin. This season of Lent is a preparation for renewing our baptismal promises during the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night. Paul says, when writing to the Romans (6:3-6), that when we were baptized, we died to our old way of life to live a new way of life i.e., if we were baptized as adults, we died to our old sinful ways, we left sin behind. Therefore, Paul says that when we were baptized, we went into the tomb with Jesus and rose out of the tomb again with Jesus to a new life. The season of Lent is to give us time once again to die to our old sinful ways and rise out of the tomb with Jesus to a new way of life so that by the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night when we renew our baptismal vows, we will also have renewed our lives. That is why the First Preface of Lent says,

For by your gracious gift each year
your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts
with the joy of minds made pure

In our second reading, Paul urged the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor 6:1). During Lent this year we too do not want the grace of God to go in vain.

To show that we are serious about overcoming sin, we do penance. Our penance during Lent, as well as being a small attempt at reparation for our sins, is a symbol of the change of heart we want to achieve. In the Gospel today (Matt 6:1-6, 16-18), Jesus spoke about prayer, fasting, and giving alms. Since the early centuries, these are three practices the Church has encouraged us to undertake during Lent as a form of penance: praying more, fasting, and giving alms to the poor.

  • We fast today and on Good Friday and abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent. In a spirit of repentance, we have always fasted from one of our favorite foods for the entire season of Lent e.g. candy. It is a way of showing that we love the Lord more than food and that we love the Lord more than sin.

  • There are many ways of giving alms. In helping other people we also love the Lord.

  • I hope Lent may also be for you a time of growing closer to the Lord by spending more time in prayer. This would also be a good time to renew praying the Rosary daily if you have been neglectful. Reading the Bible and reading spiritual books are also a great help.

I wish you a holy season of Lent, a joyful season of Lent, a time in which you grow closer to the Lord and leave sin behind. The Lord comes to us with a different grace in each season. May the grace that God gives us during this season of Lent not be in vain. I conclude with the opening prayer of Mass:

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting
this campaign of Christian service,
so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils,
we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.
(Opening Prayer of Mass on Ash Wednesday)

Copyright © Fr. Tommy Lane 2007

This homily was delivered in a parish in Maryland.

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