March 18, 2026 - Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:12-18; 2 Cor 5:20; 6:2; Matt 6:1-6. 16-18
Homily
In what we call the Sermon on the Mount, that is, the long speech with which, in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus begins his preaching, He first establishes, in the series of Beatitudes, the fundamental charter of the new world - the kingdom of heaven - that he wishes to establish. Then Jesus explains that he did not come to repeal the Law but to bring it to its fullness, and he concludes: "If your justice does not exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven".