On this day, we are marked with ashes and the ancient words accompanying that act are “Remember you are dust and unto dust you will return” or alternatively “Repent and believe the Gospel”.
Why ashes? To respond to that question, we need to see Ash Wednesday in the context of the whole season of Lent, Easter and Pentecost. We are marked with ashes because life has been driven out of them by fire. They are symbolic of the fact that without God, we have no life in us. We are made of the earth and God keeps breathing life into us (See Genesis 2:7).
This whole season is about the new life that God seeks to breathe into us, that new life which we celebrate at Easter, that new breathing into us that we celebrate at Pentecost. The ashes of Ash Wednesday symbolise human life without God – without the constant breath of God coming into us. It begins a season in which our first concern should be our relationship with God.
So, we need to see Ash Wednesday and Lent in the light of Easter and Pentecost which it leads to.
From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday there are 40 days of renewal and repentance. It is a time for prayer, for self-discipline and for generosity with what we have. (There are in fact 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, but Sundays are not days of fasting but are always celebrations of the resurrection).
There are six weeks to Lent. The gospels for the Sundays for each of the three years of the cycle of readings, each follow a different pattern: Year A (this year) – encounters with the Lord Jesus; Year B – the significance of his death; and Year C – Sin, conversion and repentance.
The last week of Lent is Holy Week, it is so called because it focuses on the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. It begins with Palm Sunday on which we commemorate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. We carry branches as did many of the people of Jerusalem on that occasion during Jesus’ life. We recognise him as our Lord. On the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, we remember the things that led up to his death.
Triduum – a Latin word for the three days which are one feast, that is three days which together make up one feast. The Triduum begins on Holy Thursday night, continues through Good Friday and reaches its climax on Holy Saturday night and continues into Easter Sunday concluding on Easter Sunday evening.
Holy Thursday – The Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. This celebrates Jesus handing over of himself to death and his continuing handing over and giving of himself to us now. His Last Supper.
As Jesus also did during the Last Supper, we wash feet. People volunteer to have their feet washed and wash the feet of others. This was a sign of Jesus’ service and so of ours.
After Mass, there is ‘The Watch’ before the Eucharist of the Lord’s presence. On the night before he died, Jesus asked his disciples to watch with him in prayer as he suffered through the anticipation of his passion. (See Marks’s Gospel 14.32-42). And so, we in our turn can watch and pray with him for some time.
Good Friday is the only day of the year on which we do not have Mass. We have The Solemn Celebration of the Lord’s Death. This begins at 3.00 pm because that was the time of the Lord’s death. The liturgy this day begins in silence with the priest and ministers prostrating themselves on the ground. There is then prayer. Then comes the liturgy of the Word which includes St John’s account of the suffering and death of the Lord. Then follows a long series of prayers for all the world. After the liturgy of the Word comes the veneration of the cross, after which there is communion. Communion is shared in bread consecrated at the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper. This is our way of expressing that the feast is one feast in three days.
The liturgy of this night is called The Easter or Paschal Vigil. There are four parts to it: the liturgy of light, the liturgy of the Word, the liturgy of Baptism (during which people are baptised); and the liturgy of the Eucharist. This is a long and very beautiful liturgy as befits the celebration of the Lord’s resurrection.
The Masses of Easter Sunday continue the celebration of the resurrection begun at the Vigil. And following it, we have the Easter season up to Pentecost.
(This summary presentation of this whole season will be fleshed out over the coming weeks.)
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