Ash Wednesday 2025

 
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
 
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels 
March 5, 2025

My brothers and sisters in Christ, ^[1]
 
As we begin this holy season of Lent, as I was saying let’s keep Pope Francis close to us in our prayers. And let us also continue to pray for our brothers and sisters who are still suffering as a consequence of the wildfires here in Los Angeles. 
 
So, today we can say that we begin again! 
 
That’s what this beautiful season of Lent is all about: making a new beginning, a fresh start. 
 
The prophet Joel brings us the Lord’s words in today’s first reading: “Even now, says the Lord, Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping and mourning.”
 
When I hear these words, I always think about the Prodigal Son; and each of us, in our own way, is a prodigal son or a prodigal daughter. 
 
Each of us knows in our heart, that sometimes we turn away, that we have wandered off the path that God would have us follow. We are not big sinners, but we know that we can do better. And my brothers and sisters, that’s what Lent is for.  
 
Lent is always a journey of returning. We walk this journey because the Lord himself is inviting us. 
 
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.^[2] That’s the whole reason he came into the world; and in this holy season we remember how much he loves us, we remember that we are so precious to him that he came to suffer and die for us. 
 
St. Paul tells us that just now today in the second reading “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” 
 
So today, once again, Jesus is calling us to take his hand and to let him lead us. 
 
And in the Gospel that we just heard, Jesus gives us three simple ways to follow him. Prayer. Fasting. Almsgiving. 
 
This is how Jesus lived, and this is how he asks us to live. 
 
Prayer is not complicated, as we know. It is just talking to God, listening to him, reading his Words in the Gospel. 
 
Making time to be quiet and listen for his voice in your heart. It’s just making time for a personal conversation with God.
 
So, the first thing, prayer, and then fasting.
 
Fasting does not mean starving yourself. It just means learning to live with less, trying to be less selfish, making little sacrifices, little offerings to God. 
 
It is traditional during the season of Lent to give up something — something little that can help us to really be with the spirit of penance and fasting.
 
Then almsgiving. That means, as we know, just being generous, opening our hearts, thinking about the needs of others; finding little ways to serve people. 
 
So, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. 
 
Jesus promises us today that if we do these things, we will know more and more that we are children of God, and we will come to know more and more how much we are loved by God. 
 
Jesus says: “Your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”
 
So, my dear brothers and sisters, today we begin again! 
 
We do not become faithful followers of Jesus overnight. Becoming a Christian, becoming a follower of Jesus, is the work of a lifetime. It means beginning and beginning again. 
 
So let’s make a good beginning today. 
 
Let’s make this Lent a time of growing deeper in our friendship with Jesus, trying to become more like Jesus: in the way we think and act. 
 
That’s the only way to find peace, joy, and happiness in our lives. 
 
And let’s especially ask Holy Mary our Blessed Mother for her intercession. 
 
May she help each of us to hear her Son’s voice, take his hand, and follow him more closely.