In his homily prepared for Mass on Ash Wednesday, read out by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, Pope Francis says that the imposition of ashes reminds us to “look within ourselves” and remember our fragility – “from dust we are created, and to dust we shall return.”
The Pope began by focusing on the ways that the imposition of ashes reminds us of deeper realities about oursel-ves. “We bow our heads in order to receive the ashes”, he said, “as if to look at ourselves, to look within ourselves. Indeed, the ashes help to remind us that our lives are fragile and insignificant: we are dust, from dust we were created, and to dust we shall return.”
This fragility takes many forms, the Pope said: weariness, weak-nesses, fears, failures, failed dreams, illness, poverty, suffering, and, of course, mortality. Although we sometimes try to flee these realities, Pope Francis said, the imposition of ashes “re-minds us of who we are”. This is good for us, he stressed – it helps prevent narcissism, and brings us back to reality, making us “more hum-ble and available to one another”.