Ash Wednesday Mass 2026

Bishop Scott Bullock
Homily from Ash Wednesday Mass
Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Rapid City
February 18, 2026

It’s the practice of our faith for the preacher to reflect on any of the scripture readings that were given. Of course, we have in a Mass like these four different scripture readings — the Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a New Testament reading, and then the Gospel. Most of us will tend to focus on the Gospel, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but I’d like to start with this season of Lent with the very first scriptural words we hear, and these are from the Prophet Joel.

We don’t hear from Joel much. He’s kind of neglected. It’s his big moment. So, the scripture passage begins, “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments.” 

Even now. The old grammar teacher in me would make me think right away that there’s something that happened before this in the book of Joel so, even now, with that having happened something else is going to happen. So, even now what has happened before this, this is chapter two, just before this the people have been confronted with a devastating plague of locusts and a drought and it’s shaken their confidence that God is with them as a chosen people. They’re wondering if they’ve been abandoned. They’ve been laid low by circumstances of life and then the prophet speaks for God saying, “Even now, return to me with your whole heart.” In other words they’ve been humbled. Now’s the time to return to the Lord because their own efforts, their human efforts have failed. Natural forces beyond their control have essentially crushed them and now they have, “nowhere else to go,” the prophet says but “back to the Lord.” 

So, the church picks up this passage to invite us to acknowledge the truth that we, too, need the Lord. We, too, are not self-sufficient. We, too, have struggled. And then Jesus completes the teaching of the prophet calling the people back to the Lord by inviting them to the three very traditional practices that we embrace during Lent so that we can turn back to the Lord. In other words, he asked us to give alms, to pray, and fast. Each of them acts of humility. Each of them occasions when we remember that we have a Lord and we are not him. Jesus uses some harsh words to make sure we do it right. That it’s an authentic turning back to God instead of turning back on ourselves is even worse. He says, “When you give alms,” for example, “do not blow a trumpet before you, as do the hypocrites.” 

Don’t be hypocrites.Hypocrites, the biblical word, is literally, an actor. Don’t be an actor. Think about those ancient symbols from Greek theater — the masks that you’ll see and even modern theaters now. The comic and the tragic mask. It’s a reminder that the actor is a fraud. He’s two-faced essentially. So, Jesus is saying yes, come back to me but don’t be too faced about it. Don’t pretend so that others might see, in other words, because this is about us living a life of integrity. Integrity — that means living in the truth. Which means I’m not God. I need God, and God wants to help us.

So, the message as we begin Lent is from the Prophet Joel saying even now return to me with your whole heart. Even now because we need to.

Jesus begins the Gospel by saying take care not to perform righteous deeds. You can hear that kind of theatrical language here. Don’t be an actor. The good news is that the Lord will help us. He can help us through these practices of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. To retrain our hearts, which need retraining, and turn back to him in integrity and remember he is the Lord and we are not.