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Over the past ten years or so, I have heard some new expressions used a lot, colloquial American idioms. One of them is “You know what I’m saying?” Another is the single, two syllable word, “Whatever...” And the one today that I have heard a lot is “You got a problem with that?” Now, Wednesday of this week is Ash Wednesday, and I have a problem with that, because it seems Ash Wednesday was just two days ago. I know it’s a sign of age, but here it is again, and, even as a child, I very much resented Lent, six weeks of giving stuff up and one day of jellybeans! There was no proportion. But we have grown up a little bit and.... So, let’s think about Ash Wednesday and Lent and Easter, the great Faith feast!

A couple of Sundays ago, a lady met me and she said, “The next time you are speaking, Father, on a Sunday, would you please mention the Boy Scouts because that shall be, in America, Boy Scout Sunday. And I said, “OK.” Then, I went for a walk with my dog in the afternoon and I am thinking, “What are the first three things you think of when you think of Boy Scouts?.... Prepared. A Boy Scout is always prepared. The next thing that I thought of was Service. They are always doing good deeds, helping people out, service in some way. And the third thing that I thought of about Boy Scouts..... This is just my own idiomatic thinking, but the third was Making a Fire. I always had a vision of them in the forest, making a fire. So I said OK, maybe that will work for Lent, getting the Boy Scout theme: Be Prepared for Lent. Get prepared especially for your Easter confession. And then, some kind of service that we can do, you and I, some simple thing, a little extra we can do for Lent. And the third is Lighting a Fire.... Lighting a Fire.

So, prepared, prepared for Lent. Our Lord Himself says, “You’ve got to repent.” We all do. The only one who didn’t was the Blessed Mother. But we all have something to repent, and Lent gives us a chance. Now, getting back to that idiom I have heard so much... At Battery Park City, which is right behind the World Trade Center, we had a chapel, my last six years in New York. And, on Ash Wednesday, we had five priests in this little chapel and we went all day long. We really did. I mean the line stretched it seemed for miles and people taking off from work and skipping their coffee breaks. They were lined up all day long for ashes, which was amazing in a way because Ash Wednesday is not a holy day and the ashes are not a sacrament. But they have, I guess, (I know!) a primal pull, ashes, for us. It’s not just a reminder of death. It’s a reminder of what comes at the end of Lent, Resurrection, Our Lord’s, my mother’s, somebody you’ve known who died, rising again. Anyhow, there was this guy on line, and the line was so long, and he was getting very impatient. He really looked like a quintessential big-shot executive, and he was getting very impatient. We had a young hispanic guy who was helping out on Ash Wednesday, Alvarado. And this big shot executive kept saying, “I’ve got an important meeting. Let me get ahead here.” And Alvarado said, “Please, Sir, wait.” And the guy got mad at the hispanic boy and said, “Listen, I’ve got a meeting. I want the ashes. You got a problem with that?” I’ll never forget it, my last Ash Wednesday in New York, and the hispanic boy just put his hand up and said, “Wait.” And grumbling, the man waited. And he came and he got the ashes. You are only supposed to administer the ashes with a delicate touch, but not I! I was Jackson Pollock spreading paint on a canvas! I wasn’t mad at him. It was just my usual style. And then he came past Alvarado to go back to work, and Alvarado, the sweet-natured usher, was sitting there. And the guy leaned over and he said, “Hey, hey, kid, I’m sorry.” And Alvarado said, “No problem.” I thought, “That’s it. That’s preparing for Lent. Confession, your annual confession maybe. Bad behavior. Time to think, to repent. Saying you’re sorry. And Our Lord saying, “No problem.” That’s it, to me, in a gist. And here we have, as you know, general confessions just before Lent, if you wish that way. And you are just supposed to pick one thing, maybe the sin that has bugged you and bothered people you love all your life, envy or pride or anger, whatever it is. And put your heart into that one word. I’m sorry. And this is a case where it is about you, not about anybody else.

Now, I told you this twice already. The man who drove me to Mass last night said, “Oh, we heard that twice already.” Last Lent, I thought it is time. If I die tonight is there anybody from whom I am estranged? I had told you about this guy and I thought I have got to make amends. I’m a priest. I’m a Catholic, and I have got to make amends. I took a long walk, and I thought, “How shall I say it?” I shall say, “Bill, I want to say I am sorry for the seven years of silence because you broke your promise, did not give me the money you said you would, kept me impoverished where I can barely make ends meet. I am sorry I have been quiet.” ....I think God has a problem with that. It’s not about anybody else. Your Lenten confession is about you. And Our Lord always says, “Welcome home.... No problem.”

The second is Service, the second thing I am reminded about Boy Scouts, doing some good action. You could give me a whole list of things that you are thinking of doing. I mean most of you work hard all week and you are tired, and “Oh, I’ve got to do something else....” But if you keep it very simple.... You could give me a list yourselves of something extra you do for Lent. It is part of our Faith. Our Lord says, “ Unless you repent you will be lost.” These are little signs of service, repentence. The two things that occur to me quickly are “Is there anybody who is very, very old (besides the priests) whom you would like to contact. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a member of the family, although it used to break our hearts as young priest to visit Old Age Homes and have these people hold up Easter Greetings from two or three years ago. “Have you seen these people since?” ... “Oh, no. They are so busy.” It doesn’t have to be a relative. A teacher, some teacher who said something good that cheered you up, that pointed out a quality that was good. Believe me, we treasure those things for months. A simple card, “Thinking of you, and so glad you passed me in Physics.” A lady snapped at me once when I came out of the Catholic School. (I was teaching there for thirty years.), an elderly lady at the corner in Poughkeepsie. And she turned to me as I left the school. She said, “Father!” ...”Yes?” ...”What about us? In the Catholic Church there is Catholic Family Day and there is Catholic Youth Day. What about us, old people, loyal to the Faith for a lifetime, living alone, holding on. What about us?” Anybody would love to hear from you for Lent. Doesn’t have to be anything more than a paragraph, something funny, something specific, thinking of you. They will treasure it for months.

And the second thing, personal suggestion of service for Lent 2005, would be listening to people under your own roof. “Oh, I know what she is going to say. Why, he always says...” I have a problem with that, even listening to my dog complaining. But when you are with people you know and love, there can be certain irritating qualities that are like panthers at the end of your nerve ends. But to listen without interrupting, to listen without thinking “I’ve heard it all before.” That’s hard. That’s a tough penance, simply to really listen, not wait ‘til the person’s mouth shuts so you can say something. It’s hard. I know it’s hard. It’s a wonderful Lenten service to the people who you love, who sometimes you would cheerfully strangle. It’s a great sign of love, and the strangle-thing is part of the love and being together. And you can even say, “Lord, I am doing this because I love You, and I love this critter.” You got a problem with that? I do. But, it’s great. You don’t announce it though, “I’m going to listen to you for six weeks.”

And the third is about lighting a fire, the image I always had about Boy Scouts, the industry and skill with which they could light a fire in a forest. You know, the Easter Vigil, they light the new fire, that marvelous glowing symbol of new life, not just Christ’s, yours, mine, people you love. You will see them, in the face, risen bodies. That’s the essence of our Faith, and the fire symbolizes that. Now, last Easter, I was sick and I called up Father Timoney before the Easter Vigil. I said, “I am sick and I can’t ....” I mean Easter?! And Father Timoney was so gracious and he said, “It’s all right, Mike. We’ll take care of it.” I had a former student visiting me that evening before I got sick, but he came to the Easter Vigil, and he hadn’t been to Mass for seventeen years. And, after the Easter Vigil, he got into his car and drove back to San Francisco, to the hotel, and he called me up. Sick as I was, he called up. He said, “I was afraid it would be that beautiful.” .... He’s back. He is. He’s back. Invite somebody, even somebody you think will not want to. All the person can do is say “No.” To the Easter Vigil or any of the days in Holy Week, all they can do is say no. And sometimes, if they say it or not, they will think, “I was afraid it would be that beautiful.”

Another suggestion, a second one, about lighting a fire in your own soul, in your own Catholic head and heart, pick up St. Mark’s Gospel a minute a day. St. Mark’s is the best to me. It’s the quickest. It reads like a movie. The scenes go fast. The dialogue is great. And it has the fringe benefit of being true. Just a minute a day, Mark’s gospel. “Oh, I know Jesus’ life.” Believe me, there are insights you get during Lent that seem miraculous. A minute a day of Mark’s gospel. And invite somebody to an Easter service with you. OK.

This you have heard four times, but every Lent we are together, you are going to hear it again. I had a classmate, still do, named Jeff Hammer. Isn’t that a great name for a priest? Father Hammer! And he was a hospital chaplain all his priesthood. That’s tough. That’s a tough job. And he does it beautifully! Anyhow, when he was a young priest, my classmate, he had this big hospital in New York City, and on Ash Wednesday, he would go to all the Catholics. And he had gotten to know many of the non-Catholics on his three or four times a week visits. There was an elderly Jewish lady who was very fond of Father Hammer. But when he came on Ash Wednesday (This was 1960 and we said everything the old fashioned way. The formula was the old one.), and he was saying it and saying it, and ashes and ashes and finally the Jewish lady said, “Hey, Fathah, what are you saying to them?” And Jeff Hammer said, “Well, Sybil, I am saying as I put the ashes, ‘Remember that you are dust and into dust you will return.’ ” She sat bolt upright and said, “Who the heck wants to hear that?”

Well, we have a new formula now. The priest can use either one. The new one is simply, “Repent your sins and be faithful to Christ’s gospel.... Repent your sins and be faithful to Christ’s gospel.” ....And we got no problem with that.