In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. Amen. 
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Victor Hugo is probably known to most of you. A very famous French author. He wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He wrote Le Miserable. He wrote a lot of other stuff. Famous author.
Unfortunately, he was a fallen away Catholic and had become very anti-clerical towards the end of his life. He fell away, drifted away very, very far. But a year before his death in 1884, he had a special grace. He met Saint John Bosco. Saint John Bosco was in France, was in Paris, and the two of them met. And Victor Hugo told John Bosco, I do believe in God, and I hope that when my time comes, a priest will be at my side to assist me. That was a year before he died. And in that year, between the meeting and his death, Victor Hugo unfortunately did nothing to change his life. He just hoped. He wanted things to be different at the moment he was going to die, but he did not actually do anything to change things. He knew that he was going to regret many things in his dying moments, but he did nothing about it. He just hoped things would be different when he was dying.
He wanted to die a good death, but did not prepare for it. So later on when he was actually dying, nothing had changed, and he was still surrounded by the same friends. Friends that hated God. Friends that hated the church. Friends that couldn't allow something like the conversion, the reconciliation with God, the reconciliation with the church of their superstar, Victor Hugo. So when Victor Hugo was dying, nothing had changed. Same friends. He asked, hey, can you call me a priest? And they wouldn't. We don't know about his soul, but Victor Hugo died with a lot of regrets. He knew he was going to have them. He did nothing to change that. He died with a lot of regrets. So that was the sad story, to begin with. Victor Hugo. My goodness. Let's entrust him to God's mercy. 
So we start with that story of this man dying, because today on Ash Wednesday, we receive ashes on our heads. Why? To remind ourselves of death. We receive them on our foreheads to think of death. And why? Why remind ourselves of death? To prepare for it. 
Here's a funny story now to transition, and then I'll make my point. The funny story about ashes being a reminder of death. Father Andrew Apostoli, maybe a familiar name to you. He himself died in 2017. He was a Franciscan friar of the Renewal, frequently on EWTN. He spoke about Bishop Fulton Sheen and about Our Lady of Fatima a lot.
So Father Apostoli tells the story of how when he was in his earlier priestly years in a friary of his in Beacon, New York, one day two ladies come, as often happens during Ash Wednesday, during the day, and say, hey Father, can we receive ashes? And of course, Father Andrew's like, sure. He imposes ashes on their heads, right on their foreheads, says the words, remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. The ladies gratefully receive the ashes. But as they're walking away, still within earshot of Father Andrew, one says to the other, man, remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. What a terrible thing to say to somebody.
And Father Apostoli comments, well, she got it. She got the message. That's right. Remember that you're dust, and to dust you shall return. What a terrible thing to say. You're dust, and you're going to return to dust. You're going to die. Think about that. That's what those ashes on your forehead mean. And that thought of death is healthy because it allows us to prepare for it, because we too know that we're going to have a lot of regrets when we're dying, unless now we do something to change.
Those things that we're unhappy about now, those things that we are regretting now, are going to be there with us now, and at that final moment, unless we change those things, and unless we change them now. In Lent, we have these 40 days of special grace to ask ourselves, what do I regret now? It's going to be with me when I'm dying. And usually, again, I can't make a list for everybody, but a lot of times it's the same thing. 
Nobody's going to be saying at their dying moment, you know what, I'm glad, and it gives me peace that I didn't forgive such and such a person. I'm glad. And I'm glad I didn't ask forgiveness of that person. It just gives me so much peace now. And I'm glad I was, you know, I never really showed charity to that difficult person in my life. I'm really glad I had that attitude. It gives me peace now. Nobody's going to be saying that. It's going to be a regret for us.
We're not going to be saying, you know what, I'm really glad I listened to all that gossip. I'm glad I repeated it. That gives me a lot of peace now, you know. Usually people don't say that. People don't think that. They regret these things. I'm glad I was so self-centered. I'm glad I didn't try to do the penance that the saints did. You know, I'm glad. I'm glad I was so cautious, and I'm glad I never tried to do what the saints did. I'm glad I didn't pray more. I'm glad I watched all those hours of useless YouTube videos. It just gives me so much peace that I used my time that way, you know.
A lot of times these things, again, are the same for us who are trying to take the spiritual life seriously. But again, if we're regretting them now, we'll be regretting them then unless we change.
So the ashes that we put on our heads today to think about death are meant to prepare us for death. Because if we don't want to have a lot of dying regrets, we have to change now. And that's what the liturgy tells us today. In an acceptable time, I heard you. And on the day of salvation, I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.
We have today. We don't know if we have tomorrow. We have now. We don't know if we have later. We have this grace now. Who knows if we'll have it later.
In an acceptable time, I heard you. And on the day of salvation, I helped you. Now is that acceptable time. Goodness, those dying regrets, we have to eliminate them now.
Now is the day of salvation. Now is the time to change. And the beautiful thing is with the help of God's grace, we can change all of that. And at the moment of death, have gladness and peace rather than just a lot of regrets. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.