As Lent begins, Pope Leo says that ashes remind us of “the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war.”
By Joseph Tulloch
Pope Leo reflected on repentance, community, and death this evening, as he presided over Ash Wednesday Mass in Rome’s Basilica of Saint Sabina.
The ashes the attendees were about to receive on their forehands, he said, remind us of “the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war.”
The state of the world, Pope Leo stressed, asks us on this Ash Wednesday “to call death for what it is, and to carry its marks within us”.
Read the full text of Pope Leo’s homily here
The Basilica of Saint Sabina in Rome during the Mass (@Vatican Media)
Sin, public and private
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and prayer that precedes Easter.
This is, the Pope said, “a powerful time for community”. Today, he noted, community is increasingly rare – but Lent gathers people together, as “a community of witnesses that recognises their sins”.
These sins, Pope Leo stressed, are both personal and communal. Sin “afflicts our hearts, and exists within us”. At the same time, however, it takes place within broader “structures of sin”, which can be “economic, cultural, political and even religious” in nature.
Lent, Pope Leo underlined, means “daring to be free” of all this, through repentance and change.
Pope Leo walks in procession to the Church of St Sabina (@Vatican Media)
The ‘missionary significance’ of Lent
In today’s secular age, the Pope said, this message is especially attractive, particularly to young people.
The young, he suggested, understand particularly clearly that “there should be accountability for wrongdoings in the Church and in the world”.
Rather than seeing Lent as a private devotion, therefore, the Pope said, Christians should search for ways to introduce it to “the many restless people of good will” who are seeking “authentic ways to renew their lives”.
