Ash Wednesday
February 18, 2026
Joel 2:12-18, 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
In the coming weeks we will re-enact some of the most powerful moments of Jesus’ journey. His private retreat to the desert led to his entry into Jerusalem, a public liturgy loaded with political and social significance that culminated his long and deliberate journey toward the center of religious and political power in first century Palestine.
The profound threat to an unjust status quo levied by Jesus’ message and ministry and his persistent call for a welcoming discipleship community had already resulted in a plot to kill him. His approach to Jerusalem on a colt, highlighting his way as one of peace, service and nonviolence, rather than military might; his rejection of what theologian Walter Wink so many years ago called the “principalities and powers,” the spirituality of the culture of violence, was unbearably threatening to civil and religious authorities.
Following the Way of the Cross in these days we will reflect on the meaning of the Crucifixion. Nailed to a tree, experiencing in his own body an especially cruel form of execution, Jesus overcame the power of evil with an ultimate act of nonviolent resistance, offering forgiveness and mercy even in the face of suffering and death, rather than responding to violence with violence.
All the way to the cross, Jesus demonstrated the power of nonviolence and insisted that his followers do the same. Pope Leo XIV, in his first World Day of Peace message recalls that “what troubled the disciples was his nonviolent response: a path that they all, Peter first among them, contested … yet the Master asked them to follow this path to the end. The way of Jesus continues to cause unease and fear.”
He firmly repeats to those who would defend him by force: “Put your sword back into its sheath” (Jn 18:11; cf. Mt 26:52). Around the world, people threatened by violence and the many who act in solidarity with them are accepting this invitation to practice Gospel political and social circumstances, as described in the World Day of Peace message. They are praying and marching and accompanying vulnerable people and their communities in Palestine, Sudan, DR Congo, Ukraine, Myanmar, Minnesota, and more. In the United States, millions across the country have refused to cooperate with growing authoritarianism and state violence.
Nonviolence names a core value of the Gospel, in which Jesus combined an unmistakable rejection of violence with the power of love and truth. This “way of Jesus” (nonviolence) is a spirituality, a way of life, a method for change, a universal ethic, and the creative power of love in action that promotes respect for the dignity of every person and the integrity of creation.
It is a constructive antidote to direct, psychological, structural, cultural, spiritual, and ecological violence. It transforms the roots of violence; is broader than pacifism; and is never passive.
The World Day of Peace message continues, throughout the world, it is to be hoped that “every community become a ‘house of peace,’ where one learns how to defuse hostility through dialogue, where justice is practiced and forgiveness is cherished.”
In these challenging times of global violence and injustice, the Church could help every Catholic community to become a “house of peace” by integrating the spirituality and practices of Gospel nonviolence into the life and work of dioceses, parishes, schools, universities, seminaries, religious orders, organizations and Catholic ministries around the world.
In his World Day of Peace message, Pope Leo reminds us that Jesus’ disciples are “invited to live in a unique and privileged way…” What is the message of the Cross now? What does it mean to follow Jesus’ way of life — a way of life that got him killed? How do we repeat his pattern of active, nonviolent, persistent, risky, creative peacemaking in our own lives in these times?”
Marie Dennis is director of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International. Previously, she was director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns for 14 years.
To read other Scripture reflections published by the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, click here.
Featured image: A boy looks up after receiving ashes and says, “Amen,” to the Eucharistic minister during Ash Wednesday Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Prescott, Arizona, March 5, 2025. (OSV News/Bob Roller)
