As the Church prepares to enter Lent, Ash Wednesday arrives in Western Christian Churches this week. Some of us start a little earlier by celebrating Mardi Gras to have that “last blowout” before the repentance and reflection of the weeks before Good Friday and Easter. But what does Ash Wednesday mean, and how do ashes link us to the Lenten Season and the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus’s sacrifice on the Cross?
Ashes and sackcloth are traditional signs of repentance in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Father Chris Koehn says, “It’s a Jewish tradition…ashes and sackcloth. It was tied back to the message of repentance – to change your life, get better, love better.” Father Jim Sabak adds that the tradition carried forward into the Catholic faith, “In the Middle Ages, at the Church of Saint Susanna in Rome, you had the expulsion of notorious sinners who would go through a series of actions of repentance during Lent. These acts of repentance were so they could return to the community on Holy Thursday and receive Holy Communion again on Easter. The penitents would throw ashes on themselves to demonstrate their sin and repentance.” Other people thought they might do that as well. That’s how Ash Wednesday begins.”
It all came from a basic human need, says Father Chris. “Originally, there was the putting on of sackcloth, which was uncomfortable, and putting ashes on your head to feel ‘gritty ’; it taps into the sense of ‘human justice.’ We don’t love perfectly, as God does; we think, ‘I should do something special because I haven’t been as good as I could be.’ We can get lost sometimes as to what God is asking us to do. So we think punishment would be good; to be uncomfortable is to ‘pay back’ for not being as good as we could be. While this is not the true intention of what Jesus said, we are humans and have this sense of justice. But God isn’t punishing us; we don’t believe in a punishing God.” “There’s a call to us in the words spoken on Ash Wednesday: ‘Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Repent, turn away from sin, and believe the good news.’ It is a testament to how we are mortal,” says Father Jim, “but it’s also a call to remember that, without God’s love, we are ‘but dust.’”
Ash Wednesday, as both priests point out, is neither a Holy Day of Obligation nor is the receiving of ashes a requirement of the Church. “There’s no obligation to Ash Wednesday,” says Father Chris, “which makes it an even more powerful day. Something about the elemental participation of what we’ve known as ‘ashes’ draws us; it becomes a movement of the heart. People know that without ashes, Easter isn’t going to be what they hope it will be; there’s this entryway that you have to start somewhere, and that’s with these ashes.” Father Jim adds, “Ashes are a sign of transformation and a pledge of transformation. A way to show that without God we are dust, and ‘I don’t wanna be dust.’ So, I wear this as a sign of my transformation to a life with God.”
While Ash Wednesday is traditionally one of the two days during Lent on which fasting is asked of us, the other being Good Friday, “The church doesn’t get into rules and proscriptions about fasting,” says Chris, but this again ties back to our ‘sense of justice’ and “we want clear guidance on what the ‘punishment’ should be.” Father Jim points out, “The fast is about the quantity of food you eat, it doesn’t mean to go hungry, and doesn’t mean not to eat at all. Generally, one meal a day or two smaller meals, which wouldn’t equal another full meal, is the practice.” “It should be,” Father Chris says, “about us making a change on the day we start this journey. It shouldn’t be an average day. If the average day is three meals, eating whatever we want, we should change as a reminder of what we need to change in our lives. Let’s change up our routine as a reminder.”
“It moves our hearts to be present in the community and to fast and receive the ashes; to be marked by the sign,” says Father Chris. “It’s turning our hearts to what Jesus said to his disciples when he was on Earth. There weren’t all these precepts and rules, and it wasn’t about that; it was a gathering to discuss a way of life. He was teaching them about the faith as a change to a different way of life. For me it’s beautiful. It doesn’t have to be a day about obligation. We come and get ashes and fast because our heart wants to participate in something that’s gonna make us closer to God, and thus closer to love.” “Get your ashes, if you want to get your ashes,” says Father Jim, “but it’s a time to begin to think about three factors that go into making Lent truly Lent. The first is praying for those who will be baptized at Easter and welcoming them. The second factor is to consider why you remain Catholic as these new people enter the Catholic faith, to evaluate your faith. The third thing is to ask ‘why does Jesus have to suffer and die, and what does it mean that he suffered and died?’”
While Lent doesn’t ‘officially’ start until the Sunday after Ash Wednesday, when the 40 days begin for those counting days, Ash Wednesday is a touchstone in our faith lives. Father Chris said, “It is ‘elemental’ in our belief to want to receive something ‘material.’ Ashes indicate you don’t have life without God. It’s an indication that we have the desire ‘to be better.’ As much as we dislike change, we want to change. There’s this reminder of mortality, which makes us want to be a better brother, sister, spouse, neighbor; there’s the feeling that ‘I really do need to start now because there’s an impetus and energy that I need to turn up.’ Time is passing, and the sign of the cross on the forehead is the raising of a hand saying, ‘I want to be a better person.’”
