06.03.2019
Have Faith in Ourselves and Faith in Others – Ash Wednesday Service in DCU
“Lent is about choices and making choices,” Archbishop Michael Jackson told those who gathered for the Service for Ash Wednesday at the Interfaith Centre at Dublin City University today (March 6).
The Archbishop presided at the service and was assisted by the Director of the Church of Ireland Centre at DCU, assisted by the Revd Prof Anne Lodge, the Revd Viji Varghese Eapen and DCU Chaplain Philip McKinley.
He said that the focus on choice was made clear in the account of the Three Temptations that Jesus underwent in the desert: commanding stones to become loaves of bread; launching himself from the pinnacle of the temple; worshipping one who promises all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour.
“What the Scriptures tell us, alongside the narratives of the three temptations, is that in each case it is the familial ease that Jesus has with Scripture itself that equips him to refute the temptations from within Scripture; and each of them is a choice for humility first and foremost that Jesus makes. Scripture and humility can be our first freedoms and choices; and we might make both of these to be spiritual resolutions for ourselves for Lent,” Archbishop Jackson said.
Turning to the Gospel for Ash Wednesday [Matthew 6:1–21] , the Archbishop said it didn’t have anything to say about the Temptations of Jesus. Rather it contained instructions on how to do good things: giving money, praying, fasting. These, he pointed out, were not exclusive to Christianity and were applicable to people of a wide range of world faiths.
He said student and academic life might not naturally lead to the world of Matthew 6. However, he contended that the final verse was universally applicable: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. [St Matthew 6.21]
“In the context of the lengthening of our choices and our freedoms, in the space we create for our ambitions, time and energy tick on whether we are undergraduates, postgraduates or academic staff. And so: goals matter; purpose matters; treasure matters. We’d do well to have faith in ourselves and faith in others, living in a highly competitive space, and we might even think of using what Christians call The Season of Lent to this purpose. For those of us who are Christians I suggest that we do not shy away from the public expression of Lent. We should not be ashamed of the cross on our forehead; it is not drawing attention to ourselves, it is drawing attention to Christ Jesus as alive in the world and engaged in the world through suffering and through politics and through religion,” the Archbishop stated.
You can read the Archbishop’s sermon in full here.
