ROME (Catholic Online) - This homily was preached by the late Servant of God John Paul II during the Ash Wednesday Liturgy in Rome on February 21,1996. May his prayers help us all to deepen our own conversion during these 40 days.

Ash Wednesday Homily

1. "Memento, homo ... quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris" (cf. Gn 3:19). "Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return."

The Church speaks these words in today's liturgy, while ashes are placed on the foreheads of the faithful. These words come from the Book of Genesis: our first parents heard them after they had sinned. Original sin and original sentence. By the act of the first Adam, death entered the world and every descendant of Adam bears the sign of death within him. All generations of humanity share in this inheritance.

I once witnessed the opening of a royal sarcophagus in the cathedral of Krakow. It was the tomb of a great monarch who had ruled when my country was at the height of its splendor and power. I saw clearly with my own eyes how his body had turned to dust. In his case, death had fulfilled its relentless law. This will happen to each one of us: "To dust you will return."

2. After the Council, the Church also likes to repeat another liturgical formula during the distribution of ashes: "Convertimini!" "Repent, and believe in the Gospel!" (Mk 1:15).

At the beginning of Lent, these words on Ash Wednesday are a plan of life for us. They are the words with which Christ began his preaching.

Repent: Metanoeite! The readings of today's liturgy speak especially of this.

"Return to me", the Prophet Joel proclaims (2:12).

And the psalmist cries: "Miserere mei, Deus, secundum misericordiam tuam". "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, ... of my sin cleanse men ... I acknowledge my offense.... Against you only have I sinned.... Create in me a clean heart, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.... Cast me not out from your presence, and take not your holy spirit from me" (cf. Ps 51[50]:3-13).

In the Gospel according to Matthew, it is Christ himself who explains the meaning of almsgiving, prayer and fasting, that is, of the actions by which we put sin behind us and return to God.

"Return to the Lord, your God" (Jn 2:13), exhorts the Lenten acclamation.

"Repent!"

"Repent and believe in the Gospel".

3. What does "believe in the Gospel" mean? It means accepting the whole truth about Christ. The Apostle writes: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21).

Christ, our justification.

It is in him and through him that the tragic knot indissolubly binding death and sin is loosed.

"The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Is 53:6) ... and he, Christ, takes that terrible burden on himself, so that in him we may become the righteousness of God.

Henceforth then, it is no longer the pair, sin and death, that prevails, but the other pair, death, his death on the Cross, and justification.

This fulfils what the Psalm proclaims: "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (51[50]:12). Create! Redemption is the new creation: in the justice and the holiness of the truth.

4. Why does the Church place ashes on our foreheads today? Why does she remind us of death? Death which is the effect of sin! Why?

To prepare us for Christ's Passover. For the paschal mystery of the Redeemer of the world.

Paschal mystery means what we profess in the Creed: "On the third day he rose again"!

Yes. Today we need to hear the "you are dust and to dust you will return" of Ash Wednesday, so that the definitive truth of the Gospel, the truth about the Resurrection, will unfold before us: believe in the Gospel.

On the threshold of Lent, it is necessary that this perspective be opened before us, so that we may believe deeply in the Gospel with all the truth of our mortal existence.

We are called to take part in the Resurrection of Christ. For this appeal to resound within us with all its force at the beginning of the Lenten season, let us realize what death means... "You are dust" ... "Repent! ... Believe in the Gospel"!