"Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." With these words, we are marked in ash with the sign of the cross. The blessed ashes on our foreheads signify that each one of us is part of a Church in need of forgiveness. Perhaps as never before, as we are made aware of the extent of sexual abuse by clergy in the Church, it is clear that the Church is to be a penitent Church.

The prophet Joel calls for a fast on the part of the whole assembly, all the people together with their leaders. Why fast? Why do penance? Because this expresses what is in the heart. Especially at this time we need to find ways to open the heart, to unburden the heavy heart, to express the fact that we sin. We seek practices that will purify us of our wrongdoing. But as we are reminded in Matthew's Gospel for Ash Wednesday, our Lenten practices are empty gestures unless they express what is in the heart.

As we embark on the season of Lent, we, all of us, must acknowledge our fault, ask forgiveness of those who have been hurt by our offense, and begin to take the steps to bring about change. To acknowledge that we are a Church that needs to repent is to recognize that we stand in solidarity with one another in sin as well as in grace. We need to do penance for the wrong we have done personally.

But, in the mystery of a Love which knows no bounds, we are also called upon to pray and do penance for others. We are one Body. Our prayer and penance can embrace the victims of sexual abuse. But it can also embrace those who have abused them.

It is our gift and task to enter now into deep solidarity with one another, asking pardon, and being willing to enter the slow and painful process of true forgiveness and reconciliation. There is no other way to true peace --- in our own hearts, in our families, communities, and among nations. Giving his message for World Peace Day 2002 to the world's diplomats, Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul, sums up the heart of Gospel living very precisely: "No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness."

At this moment in our history, all of us are offered a gracious opportunity. We are invited to do penance, to pray, to fast, to stand in solidarity with one another as a Church which is a graced community of salvation. But during this Lent in the year of Our Lord 2004, let us remember that we are, just as much, a community scarred by sin. Not this one or that one of us, but all of us. It is because of this solidarity in grace and in sin that, I, as your Archbishop, can and must be the first to say: I acknowledge my fault, and I ask forgiveness of you, my people, so that together we can move forward to the fullness of life in Christ.

Heeding the words of the prophet Joel, I ask each of you to join me in prayer, in fasting, in penance, shouldering together the burden, not only of the victims of sexual abuse, but of the perpetrators as well. In the great grace which is ours through the gift of Christ, our solidarity in sin will one day give way to solidarity in the fullness of grace, when the power of love will prevail over all evil.

This, the power of love prevailing over all evil, lies deepest in the heart of each one of us, waiting to be unlocked from our hearts so heavy with burden. The key can only be found in our readiness to forgive and to be forgiven.