Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent in the Roman Catholic Church and others (for our Orthodox brethren, Great Lent begins at the end of February this year; the 27th I believe).
For those who aren’t Roman Catholic, it’s easy to tell what day it is because suddenly there are a bunch of people walking around with smudges on their foreheads. So what’s up with that?
Lent is a period of 40 days committed to prayer, fasting, and penance in preparation for the great feast of Easter. On the first day of Lent, the Church in her wisdom presents us with a very tangible reminder of our own mortality. During the Mass today, ashes are blessed, and then applied to the foreheads of the faithful in the shape of a cross.
As the priest or deacon applies the ashes, he intones the admonition to, “Remember that thou art dust and unto dust thou shall return” or “Repent and believe the Gospel.” This ceremony makes us stop and consider that our life is fleeting and that one day we will pass over to our reward. The Church reminds us that the Eternal Word became incarnate to save us from sin, and restore us to the Father. She urges us to recommit ourselves to the path of the cross. In the words of the psalmist, we hear:
You turn men back to dust, saying,
“Return to dust O sons of men.”For a thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or a like a watch in the night.You sweep men away in the sleep of death;
they are like the new grass of the morning—
though in the morning it springs up new,
by evening is dry and withered.We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.The length of our days is seventy years—
or eighty, if we have strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass and we fly away.Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great, as the fear that is due you.Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.¹
So today, when you see that smudge on your neighbor’s forehead—or in the mirror—let it remind you that despite the cares of this life, your eternal destiny lies elsewhere. Remember that you’ll face it sooner than you think. The wise soul prepares herself now for the life that is to come.
¹Ps 90:3-12 NIV
