Whenever I was little, I was always captivated by the beginning of Lent- not because I was necessarily excited about it, or because I had a particular affection to the tasks associated with Lent, but because I was fascinated by the use of ash. In our common experience, ash is something that is discarded and thrown away. It’s what occurs after fire takes away the remaining useful substance in wood, in palm, or in whatever the fire consumes. Even in my young eyes- it was a curious use- why would we use ash to commemorate this solemn day- this day we call Ash Wednesday?
We know the tradition of ash- that in Old Testament times, it was used to show this downcast and fallen demeanor that our broken and frail humanity has to take on time and time again. It shows when a person has been overcome by great suffering, by affliction, or perhaps some great tragedy has come upon them. Why is this a procedure of our current Lenten practiceyear after year? Why are we the ones repenting and putting ash on our foreheads again and again?
Perhaps it is time to get back into focus on what matters.
The first reading today is taken from the book of Joel. The entirety of this first reading is focused on one primary task, and it is right there in the first verse of the first reading: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping, and mourning;” What does this mean? It means that there has been a break and a fracture in our relationship with God. Every time we choose, out of weakness or malice, to do, to say, or to omit some action that God has either prescribed or prohibited; that is a moment of sin- a moment where we miss the mark, and choose something that is not of God, and does not follow His commands for us. There are a variety of ways that this occurs. When this occurs, our relationship with God is broken, in small and great ways. We must go and receive forgiveness for these moments- but this requires us to repent. To tell our Lord that we have done wrong in this way or that way, or as many ways that we have gone astray. So, we take up one of the major tasks of Lent in doing this- we fast, and we speak to God, and we repent of sin.
However, it isn’t just enough to note that we repent, and that for this we take on dust and ashes to denote this. We do more! If we read from Saint Paul and his Second Letter to the Corinthians, we hear about another task that needs to be completed. Saint Paul says: “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” What does this mean? It means that we are being encouraged by Saint Paul to take on this very repentance, because of the fact that we are a people steeped in hope. The ashes signed on everyone’s forehead today do not take an indiscriminate form, but they take on the sign of the cross. They show that there is hope in the midst of this repentance.
It isn’t fruitless labor, but something that the Lord has asked to do: to make this total and complete return to God. To make room for that Cross- so that we can adopt and take on that righteousness that we don’t have ourselves, but Christ gives to us in a remarkable and new way through the Cross. We make room for that. Notice further down in this reading: in an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation, I helped you.” NOW is the time! It’s not something that we vaguely slate for a future date, but it is something that is encouraged from us now! It is the time to repent- it is time for us to focus on getting closer to salvation and making room for it!
Then, finally, we arrive at the Gospel, and this is a very appropriate reading considering the tasks of Lent that are always before us: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. He highlights each of these three things, but underneath there always remains one encouragement: do righteous deeds, not so that people may see them, but for God alone. When we give alms, we do that in secret. We don’t blow the trumpet before us or call attention to it. We do it because it removes material goods from us and moves us closer to God as a result. When we pray, we are not to simply do it as an empty and hollow show, which may superficially sound good, or even look good on paper, but is not meant to move us closer to God.
Finally, we are instructed with fasting- we should not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They are not interested in the purpose of fasting- they simply know that it is something that looks good, and so they neglect their appearance and make it heavily apparent that this is what is going on. What does Jesus instruct His followers to do instead? He tells them to wash their head and face- so that they do not appear to be fasting, and do not lose that eternal reward. They are seen by God alone, and that is the entire point of fasting! They are working to get closer to God.
That, my brothers and sisters, should be our goal. We could easily see the ash that we apply to our foreheads today as simply being hollow or something we do for show. Maybe we see it as something that is only what has been left by burning other materials, and we are left with a very small and meager amount. Maybe it gives us thought about what affliction Lent might cause us. Perhaps it causes us to think about destruction. Yet, it is not about that.
My brothers and sisters: this is a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and it isn’t for any other purpose than to restore us in our relationship with God. During these forty days and forty nights, especially as we apply these ashes to our foreheads, let us remind ourselves of our current and present opportunity to be restored in Christ, and to be redeemed, if we but repent and return to Him, even in the midst of dust and ashes.
