Ash Wednesday

The ancient rite of ashes which takes place in our churches in every part of the world this day marks the beginning of the season of Lent. The imposition or sprinkling with ashes has always been recognised as an act of sorrow for our sins and misdeeds, and at the same time a plea for God’s mercy and forgiveness. The willingness with which we have ashes placed on our foreheads would suggest a deep acknowledgement on our part of our fragile human condition before God, allied to the awareness that He alone can heal and restore.

The readings from Scripture which the Church sets before us on Ash Wednesday call us to enter within ourselves, to ponder and reflect in that still place which is the human heart and where we stand alone before God. The prophet Joel summons the people to set aside the daily routine which so preoccupies them and join the community, their brothers and sisters, in an act of penitential worship. Forgiveness and a blessing from God will undoubtedly follow.

Building on this community dimension from Joel, the apostle Paul urges us to open ourselves to God’s gift of reconciliation, freely offered to us in the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. Implicit in the Apostle’s words is the reassurance that the “sinless One” has taken away our sins by the sacrifice of himself upon the cross. We do not save ourselves, Paul would say. God has already accomplished that in Christ.

The disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving which the Church enjoins upon us in Lent are intended to ready us for the great feast of Easter. By seriously engaging in prayer before a loving Father, we discover our true identity and destiny as sons and daughters created in his image. Our acts of fasting are an assertion that our bodily desires must be kept in their proper place, and that we also have spiritual needs as human beings. Lent is not a solitary journey, and our spiritual exercises are meant in part to issue in our concern for others, what we traditionally call “almsgiving”.

Ash Wednesday gives us much to think about, but above all it is God’s acceptable time, the day when we receive salvation.

+Michael Campbell OSA
Coadjutor Bishop of Lancaster