🗓️Friday after Ash Wednesday

The liturgical institution of the days following Ash Wednesday until the first Sunday of Lent dates back to the 7th and 8th centuries, when the Roman Church adjusted the calendar to ensure the strict observance of the forty days of fasting, mirroring Christ's retreat into the desert. As Sundays were never days of fasting or penance, the beginning of Lent, which previously occurred on Quadragesima Sunday, was moved forward to the preceding Wednesday. The Friday after Ash Wednesday, therefore, has the historical character of consolidating the entry of the faithful and catechumens into Lenten discipline, not only through the rite of the newly imposed ashes but also through the immediate practice of the virtues. Historically, the liturgical station for this day in Rome is at the Basilica of Saints John and Paul, martyrs on the Caelian Hill who sealed their faith with the shedding of their own blood and with the distribution of their goods to the poor. The choice of this station church, combined with the readings proposed by the traditional Missal, is not accidental; it establishes from the very first steps of Lent that the physical abstention of fasting must be inseparably united with concrete charity and unwavering faith in divine providence, alerting the soul against the danger of an empty, theatrical, or hollow penance devoid of inner conversion.

🎵 Introit (Sl 26, 8 e 9 | ib., 1)

Tibi dixit cor meum, quæsívi vultum tuum. vultum tuum, Dómine, requíram: ne avértas fáciem tuam a me. Ps. Dóminus illuminátio mea, et salus mea: quem timébo? 

My heart has said to Thee: I have sought Thy face. Thy face, O Lord, I will seek: turn not away Thy face from me. Ps. The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear?

📜 Epistle (3 Kings 17)

In diébus illis: Factus est sermo Dómini ad Elíam Thesbíten, dicens: Surge et vade in Saréphta Sidoniórum, et manébis ibi: præcépi enim ibi mulíeri víduæ, ut pascat te. Surréxit et ábiit in Saréphta. Cumque venísset ad portam civitátis, appáruit ei múlier vídua cólligens ligna, et vocávit eam, dixítque ei: Da mihi páululum aquæ in vase, ut bibam. Cumque illa pérgeret, ut afférret, clamávit post tergum eius, dicens: Affer mihi, óbsecro, et buccéllam panis in manu tua. Quæ respóndit: Vivit Dóminus, Deus tuus, quia non habeo panem, nisi quantum pugíllus cápere potest farínæ in hýdria, et páululum ólei in lécytho: en, collige duo ligna, ut ingrédiar, et fáciam illum mihi et fílio meo, ut comedámus et moriámur. Ad quam Elías ait: Noli timére, sed vade, et fac, sicut dixísti: verúmtamen mihi primum fac de ipsa farínula subcinerícium panem párvulum, et affer ad me: tibi autem et fílio tuo fácies póstea. Hæc autem dicit Dóminus, Deus Israël: Hýdria farínæ non defíciet, nec lécythus ólei minuétur, usque ad diem, in qua Dóminus datúrus est plúviam super fáciem terræ. Quæ ábiit, et fecit iuxta verbum Elíæ: et comédit ipse et illa et domus eius: et ex illa die hýdria farínæ non defécit, et lécythus ólei non est imminútus, iuxta verbum Dómini, quod locútus fúerat in manu Elíæ. 

In those days, the word of the Lord came to Elias the Thesbite, saying: Arise, and go to Sarephta of the Sidonians, and dwell there: for I have commanded a widow woman there to feed thee. He arose, and went to Sarephta. And when he was come to the gate of the city, he saw a widow woman gathering sticks, and he called to her, and said to her: Give me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called after her, saying: Bring me also, I beseech thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she answered: As the Lord thy God liveth, I have no bread, but only a handful of meal in a pot, and a little oil in a cruse. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elias said to her: Fear not, but go, and do as thou hast said: but first make for me of the same meal a little hearth cake, and bring it to me: and after make for thyself and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: The pot of meal shall not waste, nor the cruse of oil be diminished, until the day wherein the Lord will give rain upon the face of the earth. She went and did according to the word of Elias: and he ate, and she, and her house. And from that day the pot of meal wasted not, and the cruse of oil was not diminished, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke in the hand of Elias.

✝️ Gospel (Mt 23)

In illo témpore: Locútus est Iesus ad turbas et ad discípulos suos, dicens: Super cáthedram Moysi sedérunt scribæ et pharisǽi. Omnia ergo, quæcúmque díxerint vobis, serváte et fácite: secúndum ópera vero eórum nolíte fácere: dicunt enim, et non fáciunt. Alligant enim ónera grávia et importabília, et impónunt in húmeros hóminum: dígito autem suo nolunt ea movére. Omnia vero ópera sua fáciunt, ut videántur ab homínibus: dilátant enim phylactéria sua, et magníficant fímbrias. Amant autem primos recúbitus in cenis, et primas cáthedras in synagógis, et salutatiónes in foro, et vocári ab homínibus Rabbi. Vos autem nolíte vocári Rabbi: unus est enim Magíster vester, omnes autem vos fratres estis. Et patrem nolíte vocáre vobis super terram, unus est enim Pater vester, qui in cœlis est. Nec vocémini magístri: quia Magíster vester unus est, Christus. Qui maior est vestrum, erit miníster vester. Qui autem se exaltáverit, humiliábitur: et qui se humiliáverit, exaltábitur. 

At that time, Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men's shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them. And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes. And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, and salutations in the marketplace, and to be called by men, Rabbi. But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master; and all you are brethren. And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, Christ. He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

🕊️ True Religion: From Providence that Nurtures to Humility that Saves

The sincere search for the face of God, proclaimed with ardent desire in the Introit, sets the tone for all of Lenten spirituality, demanding from the soul a purification that transcends mere external obedience to reach the core of the heart. This purification operates through two paths perfectly outlined in today's liturgy: charity sustained by blind faith in providence, and humility that annihilates spiritual pride. The widow of Sarephta figures as the archetype of operative faith; by offering her last sustenance—the "bread baked in the ashes," a perfect symbol of Lenten contrition and penance—she demonstrates that true charity consists in giving oneself to God even when human misery seems to cry out in despair, for faith that holds back nothing for itself compels divine clemency to open the inexhaustible treasures of His grace (Saint Augustine, Sermon 11 on the Widow of Sarephta). In direct and tragic contrast to this indigent widow, the Gospel exposes the falsehood of the scribes and Pharisees, whose religion is a theater of vanities, where the heavy burdens tied to others' shoulders and the enlarged fringes replace the law of love. Spiritual pride is the most subtle poison of piety, for it blinds the intellect to its own misery and transforms the worship due to the Creator into a stage for self-adoration, completely blocking the outpouring of grace which only finds a dwelling in hearts emptied of self (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 162, a. 3). So that the Lenten fast does not turn into Pharisaical hypocrisy, the Church invites us to descend to the foundations of our humanity, recognizing, like the widow, that we have nothing but "a little meal and oil," and that the glorious exaltation promised by Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven is reserved solely for those who, entrusting all their cares to the Lord, make themselves the least and most humble servants of all their brethren.