Ash Wednesday inaugurates the holy season of Lent, a period of forty days dedicated to prayer, fasting, and penance, in preparation for the Easter of the Lord. In the traditional liturgy, the station gathers at the Basilica of Santa Sabina, on the Aventine Hill, symbolizing the return to the sources of the Roman faith. The central ceremony of this day is the blessing and imposition of ashes, obtained from burning the branches blessed on Palm Sunday of the previous year. This sacramental recalls man's mortal condition through the formula "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return" (Gen 3:19), derived from Adam's expulsion from Paradise. In ancient times, this rite marked the beginning of public penance for notorious sinners, who were expelled from the church until Holy Thursday; over time, the Church extended this gesture of humility to all the faithful, for before the holiness of God, all are in need of conversion. The texts of the Mass, from the Introit to the Gospel, harmonize the gravity of divine judgment with the sweetness of His mercy, exhorting not only to corporal maceration but, above all, to the interior renewal of the heart ("rend your hearts"), founded on the hope of forgiveness and the pursuit of celestial treasures that the moth does not consume.
📜 Introit (Wis 11:24, 25 and 27 | Ps 56:2)
Miseréris ómnium, Dómine, et nihil odísti eórum quæ fecísti, dissímulans peccáta hóminum propter pœniténtiam et parcens illis: quia tu es Dóminus, Deus noster. Ps. Miserére mei, Deus, miserére mei: quóniam in te confídit ánima mea. ℣. Glória Patri.
Thou hast mercy upon all, O Lord, and hatest none of the things that Thou hast made. Thou overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance and sparest them; for Thou art the Lord our God. Ps. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for my soul trusteth in Thee. ℣. Glory be to the Father.
✉️ Epistle (Joel 2:12-19)
Hæc dicit Dóminus: Convertímini ad me in toto corde vestro, in jejúnio, et in fletu, et in planctu. Et scíndite corda vestra, et non vestiménta vestra, et convertímini ad Dóminum, Deum vestrum: quia benígnus et miséricors est, pátiens, et multæ misericórdiæ, et præstábilis super malítia. Quis scit, si convertátur, et ignóscat, et relínquat post se benedictiónem, sacrifícium et libámen Dómino, Deo vestro? Cánite tuba in Sion, sanctificáte jejúnium, vocáte cœtum, congregáte pópulum, sanctificáte ecclésiam, coadunáte senes, congregáte párvulos et sugéntes úbera: egrediátur sponsus de cubíli suo, et sponsa de thálamo suo. Inter vestíbulum et altáre plorábunt sacerdótes minístri Dómini, et dicent: Parce, Dómine, parce pópulo tuo: et ne des hereditátem tuam in oppróbrium, ut dominéntur eis natiónes. Quare dicunt in pópulis: Ubi est Deus eórum? Zelátus est Dóminus terram suam, et pepércit pópulo suo. Et respóndit Dóminus, et dixit pópulo suo: Ecce, ego mittam vobis fruméntum et vinum et óleum, et replebímini eis: et non dabo vos ultra oppróbrium in géntibus: dicit Dóminus omnípotens.
Thus saith the Lord: Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil. Who knoweth but He will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind Him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed, and the bride from her bride chamber. Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord's ministers, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare Thy people: and give not Thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God? The Lord hath been zealous for His land, and hath spared His people. And the Lord answered and said to His people: Behold I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled with them: and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. Thus saith the Lord Almighty.
📖 Gospel (Mt 6:16-21)
In illo témpore: Dixit Jesus discípulis suis: Cum jejunátis, nolíte fíeri, sicut hypócritæ, tristes. Extérminant enim fácies suas, ut appáreant homínibus jejunántes. Amen, dico vobis, quia recepérunt mercédem suam. Tu autem, cum jejúnas, unge caput tuum, et fáciem tuam lava, ne videáris homínibus jejúnans, sed Patri tuo, qui est in abscóndito: et Pater tuus, qui videt in abscóndito, reddet tibi. Nolíte thesaurizáre vobis thesáuros in terra: ubi ærúgo et tínea demólitur: et ubi fures effódiunt et furántur. Thesaurizáte autem vobis thesáuros in cœlo: ubi neque ærúgo neque tínea demólitur; et ubi fures non effódiunt nec furántur. Ubi enim est thesáurus tuus, ibi est et cor tuum.
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: When you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee. Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.
💎 The interiority of penance and the treasure of grace
The liturgy of Ash Wednesday introduces us into the arena of spiritual combat, where the weapons are not carnal, but divine: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The prophet Joel, in the Epistle, establishes the foundation of this sacred time by proclaiming: "Rend your hearts and not your garments", indicating that true conversion occurs in the recess of the soul, where the human will bows before the Divine Majesty, and not merely in exterior manifestations of sorrow. St. Augustine teaches us that fasting purifies the soul and elevates the mind, but warns that such practice is sterile if detached from charity and rectitude of intention; to fast from food without fasting from sin is a mockery of God (St. Augustine, Sermon 142). Christ, in the Gospel, radicalizes this requirement by condemning the hypocrisy of those who seek human glory through religious acts; He orders that penance be done "in secret", under the gaze of the Father, for vanity is the "moth" that consumes the treasure of good works even before they reach heaven. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that fasting assumes a triple value: it represses the concupiscence of the flesh, disposes the mind for the contemplation of eternal truths, and serves as satisfaction for sins committed (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 147). Therefore, the ashes we receive today are not an end in themselves, but a pedagogical sign of our contingency and mortality, driving us to despise perishable goods - where rust consumes and thieves steal - and to accumulate, through a sincere and hidden humility, the imperishable treasure of divine grace, the only one capable of satisfying the human heart that was created for eternity.