Ash Wednesday


Ash Wednesday

     Remember, O man, that “you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” say our priests as they trace the sign of the cross on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday.  They are quoting part of God’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:19b, after Adam had sinned.

     Why do our pastors say this and place ashes on us?  Why do they remind us of human death, and of the fact that death is the result of sin?

     They’re alerting us to the Good News, to the Pascal Mystery of Good Friday and Easter.  It’s this: God took away your death!  

      Before Jesus, everyone went after death to what the Old Testament calls the realm of the dead.  But now, because Jesus died in your place, you have the option to choose God and so to live with him in heaven.  That’s how the Cross changed everything.  It’s why Jesus died for us.  It’s what we mean when we say that Jesus is the Redeemer of the world. 
 
     Ash Wednesday (and all of Lent) are meant to alert us, not only to be more deeply aware of our sins (which trap us and cast us from God), but to thank him deeply for his amazing mercy to us.  When we love him like that, we’ll be happy to confess our sins often, and to follow him.  We won’t want our old sins to shackle us any more, and we’ll want to live for Christ.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

     As it says in the Old Testament reading for Ash Wednesday:  “Blow the trumpet in Zion!  Proclaim a fast, call an assembly, gather the people, notify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children. . . . Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep, and say, “Spare, O Lord, your people, and make not your heritage a reproach” (Joel 2:15-17).
     
     This Lent, embrace with all your heart what Jesus Christ did for you when He died and rose again!  Then you’ll really be ready to worship, and to receive the grace of Easter.

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