JOHN PAUL II PRESIDES AT ASH WEDNESDAY PENITENTIAL RITE

VATICAN CITY, MAR 6, 2003 (VIS) - At 5 p.m. yesterday, Ash Wednesday, there was a brief prayer service at St. Anselm Church on Rome's Aventine Hill, which was followed by a penitential procession to the nearby basilica of St. Sabina. Here Pope John Paul presided at the Liturgy of the Word, delivered a homily, and blessed the ashes which he and others then received. Cardinal Jozef Tomko, who has the title of St. Sabina, presided at the Eucharistic liturgy.

In his homily, the Pope spoke of the community dimension of penance, saying that "especially in difficult moments, following a misadventure or in the face of danger, the Word of God, through the prophets, used to call believers to a penitential mobilization: all are called, no one is excluded, from the old to babies; everyone united to implore God's compassion and pardon."

He remarked that receiving ashes might seem an anachronism in today's society but added that the words we hear upon receiving them - "Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return" - remind us that we are flesh and spirit; the flesh will die and return to dust but "the spirit is made for immortality. The believer knows that Christ has risen, conquering even death in His body."

Receiving ashes, the Pope went on, reminds us that we are creatures, but also "sinners who need God's pardon to be able to live according to the Gospel. ... This prospect of joy commits believers to do all possible to anticipate in the present time something of future peace. ... This is the aim of the prayer and fasting to which, in the face of threats of war that weigh on the world, I have invited the faithful."

"Prayer and fasting must be accompanied by good works. Conversion must be translated into welcoming and solidarity, affirmed John Paul II in concluding remarks. "There will never be peace on earth as long as the oppression of peoples, social injustices and economic imbalances persist. Initiatives and external interventions are not enough for the great and longed-for structural changes: there must be a choral conversion of hearts to love."

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