Dear friends,

There is a strange phenomenon that occurs at the beginning of Lent every year. Seemingly out of nowhere occurs a sudden spike of mass attendance and a fervent display of devotion as many Catholics and, in some cases, non-Catholics attend the Ash Wednesday masses and word services. It is strange since the celebration of Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of our season of repentance and serves as a reminder of our sinfulness and our absolute need for the love and mercy of God.

This is perhaps the greatest hurdle for many in the world to follow Christ, mainly the need to recognize our sinfulness, repent, and conform our lives to Christ as his disciples. It is odd, then, that so many lukewarm Catholics and those who don’t even consider themselves Christians look to receive the ashes on their foreheads. Why?

I think it is a human response to the inescapable reality of our mortality. We spend so much of our lives in the world, in our culture, trying to grasp at lasting meaning and stave off our inevitable demise. In the end, the best we can do on our own is to ignore our mortality or distract ourselves from death. From an obsession with health, remaining youthful, and extending our lives for as long as possible to pursuing earthly glory in worldly possessions and human accomplishment, we try our best to avoid confronting the fact that we will not always be as we are on earth. One day we will die.

There is also a pressure to keep up appearances, to not admit fault, and to deflect or cover up our flaws; to deny our sinfulness. In receiving our ashes on the first day of Lent, we mark ourselves both as sinners and mortal creatures. This reception of ashes leads to a catharsis, an acceptance of our mortality best summed up in the words spoken to Adam by God after the fall as he says, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19) From a purely secular perspective there is a relief in confronting and accepting this fact; that I was born into the world and one day I shall return to the earth and there is nothing I can do to stop that. Receiving the ashes on our heads serves as a sigh of relief or a conduit for all the anxiety held and suppressed over death and dying. However, this cannot be all. As Catholics, as believers in the infinite mercy of the God of life, we are equipped with faith and hope to confront our mortality.

As we are marked by ashes with the accompanying words, we acknowledge and accept our status as creatures. In doing so, we also understand the great abyss that separates us from our creator, that we are but dust that has been given life as an imprint of the divine. For those who do not believe in Christ, the marking of ashes, although a temporary relief from pretending we aren’t going to die one day, still spells doom and despair, accepting that there is nothing we can do to prevent our own death. For Christians, however, the marking of ashes is characterized by the formation of the cross on the forehead. In being marked by the ashen cross, we face death with hope in Christ.

Ash Wednesday, we do not despair but invite hope into our Mortality. On Ash Wednesday, we realize, as Bishop Erik Varden notes in his book The Shattering of Loneliness, that “A human being is dust called to glory.” In other words, we rejoice as we realize the call to new life in and through Christ as beloved disciples and adopted children of God. We recognize the call to be something more than animated dust. We understand that the path to glory starts with humility in accepting our littleness, our sinfulness, and by responding to the invitation of the savior, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) The path to glory, the path of salvation is marked by the cross; marked by the paschal mystery of our Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection.

This is why we begin Lent by marking ourselves with ashes as a reminder of who we are and who we hope to become in Jesus Christ. It is not a one-and-done deal. We are constantly conformed to Christ by the holy spirit, by repentance, and by proclaiming and living the Gospel. We cannot do it alone. The moment we think ourselves independent from God, the moment we ignore his grace is the moment we abandon our hope and our salvation. Therefore, as we begin this season of repentance and preparation, I encourage us to approach it with humility and to look deeper than just the one-day aesthetics of shopping at the grocery store with an ash cross traced on our forehead. Rather, enter into the profound mystery of our redemption as dust seeking glory in the Lord and invite his transformative grace into your life this Lenten season through acts of fasting, prayer, and charity.

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