This week is Ash Wednesday, a day when millions of Christians will receive ashes on their forehead as an outward sign of the need for repentance. Let us recall that repentance in this context can mean far more than expressing remorse for a misdeed.
Remember Job who was “blameless” and “upright,” and always did the right thing, yet he repented in dust and ashes. In this way, repentance can be considered a change of heart, a new mindset, or a willingness to change for the better. Or even a broadening of one’s thoughts, feelings, and ideas about the Divine.
But where do the ashes come from? Is there a significance to the ashes?
Dust and ashes were used as signs of mourning in the ancient world, described multiple times the Hebrew Scriptures (or Old Testament.) While repenting and even mourning with dust and ashes was a common practice in ancient culture, it is not a biblical command, but rather a construct of the church. By tradition, the ashes that are used for Ash Wednesday are obtained by burning the palms left over from the Palm Sunday celebration of the year before. Those ashes are then collected and blessed as part of the liturgy that is involved with Ash Wednesday.
It is special that the ashes are from the palms used on Palm Sunday. It is a little bit like a hidden secret promise. The ashes whisper to us, “You will rise from the ashes of your life.”
Palm Sunday is when Christians commemorate the last time Jesus traveled to Jerusalem. Though Jesus had been to Jerusalem several times to celebrate the feasts, his final entry into Jerusalem had a special meaning. He was solemnly entering now as a humble King of Peace. Large Passover crowds surrounded Jesus, waving palms, shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" The ashes of palms on Ash Wednesday really do hold a promise for us, they say, “There is beauty for ashes.”
Ash Wednesday begins a process where we take 40 days for self-reflection. We commit ourselves to a process that is uniquely ours, most people choose to release some habit, or to fast from something: alcohol, colas, gum, candy, meat on Fridays or some combination thereof. We are committing to a journey that begins in the low light of evening on Ash Wednesday, and goes into the blackness of Good Friday, with the knowledge that Light is just down the road on Easter morning. This is the beauty to be found for ashes.
Lent is not a time to be depressed and wallow in our failures, it is the time to free our soul from burdens. By looking at our lives and seeing what we want to change, really change, we become free.
I invite you in this season of fasting and release to consider also feasting. Say we want to release the habit of negative thinking about someone who gets under our nerves. By releasing those thoughts we create an empty space, something of a spiritual vacuum. Let us consider with care what to feast on: prayer, meditation, service to others, or perhaps just a better habit – like making our beds in the morning. This is also the beauty to be found for the ashes.
"What are you giving up for Lent?" It's a question a lot of people will ask these next few days. If we want to change our bodies, perhaps alcohol and candy is the way to go. But if we want to change our hearts, perhaps a different fast is needed, along with a feast.
To change a heart, Pope Frances suggests that perhaps we need to fast from indifference and feast on love. He states Lent is the perfect time to learn how to love again through the example of the great teacher and way shower on the topic of love – Jesus. Jesus, who as he hung on the cross in excruciating pain…. and lovingly said to a criminal nearby, on another cross, who asked for forgiveness, “Today you will join me in paradise.”
Indeed there is beauty to be found for ashes. I trust that though our Lenten journey we will all find so much beauty and rise from the ashes of our lives.
Thank you for reading and be blessed this day.
Comments