Everyone needs a way to be reminded of important things. For example, we write reminders on sticky notes and put them where they'll be seen first thing in the morning.
In the spiritual life, we easily forget some basic truths, such as Jesus is fully human and fully divine. Thus, at Mass, after we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and hear a message on applying it to our lives, we profess our faith that this Jesus is fully human and fully divine.
Ash Wednesday reminds us of something that lies at the heart of our Catholic faith. When we receive ashes on our foreheads, we engage ourselves with a simple but vivid act of truth-telling: We are fully human, but we are certainly not divine.
Early in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus happens upon some fishermen and tells them to cast their nets again. They haul in such a great catch that their boat almost sinks. Simon knows what has happened is not humanly possible, but requires divine intervention. He falls to his knees in an act of truth-telling: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:1-13).
We begin Lent with a vivid reminder of the truth that Simon Peter professes. That is, we back up our words with the action of marking ourselves with ashes. We do something similar with other words we say. When we tell a child, “I love you,” we back up our words of love with a hug and a kiss. Words and action together make for moments of truth-telling.
Marking ourselves with ashes gives the moment of truth-telling a “sticky” quality because it engages our senses. We feel the ashes being applied, see them on one another’s brows, and hear the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” or “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Our bodies often remember better than our minds alone can.
Ashes developed from early Christian practices of public repentance and, over time, became part of the Church’s communal beginning of Lent. And yet, the connection between ashes and repentance predates Christianity.
Our place
From the beginning, ashes remind us of the truth about our place before the Creator. God forms us from the dust of the earth. When we forget that we are creatures and not God’s equals, we fall out of a proper relationship with our Creator. God reminds us: “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Later, Abraham, the father of the covenant people, leaves a legacy of humility when we prays: “I am only dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27). Ashes intensify the truth of our createdness.
Elsewhere, ashes are coupled with repentance, as when Jonah preaches in Nineveh, and even the Assyrian king rose from his throne, clothed himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes (Jonah 3:6). Similarly, when Job admits his error, he tells God: “I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).
Later, when the people are exiled to Babylon, ashes come to symbolize ruin and loss, which God exchanges for a diadem (a royal crown) when restoring them to their homeland (Isaiah 61:3).
The entire movement of history in the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in Jesus. Although Jesus does not require our use of ashes, he certainly knows their meaning. When he proclaims the fulfillment of the long-held hope for a restored kingdom, he calls people to repent, but not with the performance of today’s street artists or the gloomy masks of hypocrites (Matthew 6:16). Instead, he calls people to a humble, prayerful conversion of the heart.
Ash Wednesday begins our communal journey to Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection. We receive ashes to tell the truth about ourselves: that we are creatures in God’s creation, not God’s equals. When that truth is taken to heart, our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving can take us more deeply to our proper place before God.
Then, at Easter, we can more easily discover that God does not abandon us to the exile of sin, but restores us through Christ’s Death and Resurrection.
May we then find our place before Jesus as did Simon Peter and others — humble enough to admit our need, and ready to drop our nets and follow him wherever the fishing is better.
