Next Wednesday Lent begins.
Even though we have just begun a new series of articles on the Mass, I am proposing we pick that up again after Easter and over the next six weeks we take a look at the long season that begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Pentecost Sunday. It is the core period of our Christian year and understanding, it is not just about understanding a feast or a season but about understanding who we are as a Catholic Christian people.
Ash Wednesday has hidden depths to it. It marks the beginning of the Lent-Easter season but our use of ashes is a very significant symbol. Ashes result from fire. They are what is left after fire has driven the life out of things. We use them to symbolise the fact that without God, the life-giver, we are just like ashes, we have no life in us.
The use of the ashes is our way of acknowledging that we are continually receiving life from God, and that separating ourselves from God is a way of giving death its way with us. This is captured by the phrase which accompanies the giving of ashes: “Remember that you are dust and unto dust you will return.”
This recalls the creation of Adam in one of the stories of creation: “The Lord God shaped man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). So, without God’s breath of life, we are but dust. In this, the symbolic Adam stands in for all of us.
Ash Wednesday is oriented to Easter and Pentecost, the feasts which give it its meaning. At Easter, the Risen Christ again breathes his Spirit into his disciples: “… he (Jesus) breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). And again, at Pentecost, it is the Spirit, the breath of new life which the first disciples receive and which is passed on to us. So, to understand Ash Wednesday we need to relate it to Easter and Pentecost.
We think of Lent as a time of penance. We will look at Lent next week in this series. And it also needs to be understood in its relationship to Easter. It is about prayer and fasting and sharing what we have but we need to see these practices in relation to Easter and the Gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.
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Mary Conlan says:
Thank you Fr Frank for such a rich reflection on Ash Wednesday. Beautiful and much on which to ponder.
Happy 80 th Birthday👏🙏