His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on Ash Wednesday: ‘Call death for what it is’

As Lent begins, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV says that ashes remind us of “the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war.”

By Joseph Tulloch

His Holiness Pope Leo XIV reflected on repentance, community, and death this evening, as he presided over Ash Wednesday Mass in Rome’s Basilica of Saint Sabina.

The ashes the attendees were about to receive on their forehands, he said, remind us of “the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war.”

The state of the world, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV stressed, asks us on this Ash Wednesday “to call death for what it is, and to carry its marks within us”.

Read the full text of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV's Homily here.

Sin, public and private

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the 40-day period of Fasting and Prayer that precedes Easter.

This is, the Pope said, “a powerful time for community”. Today, he noted, community is increasingly rare – but Lent gathers people together, as “a community of witnesses that recognises their sins”.

These sins, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV stressed, are both personal and communal. Sin “afflicts our hearts, and exists within us”. At the same time, however, it takes place within broader “structures of sin”, which can be “economic, cultural, political and even religious” in nature.

Lent, Pope Leo underlined, means “daring to be free” of all this, through repentance and change…

This report was originally publsihed on the Website of Vatican News. Please click here to read the full text.