Next Wednesday, Feb.18, we begin the season of Lent by celebrating Ash Wednesday. That day seems to have a remarkable attraction in the midst of our secular age.
Last year, both in the United States and in other countries, the attendance at Mass and the request to receive ashes on Ash Wednesday was reported to be notably higher than usual. And those reports consistently highlighted the participation of young people and, notably, many young men.
Each year too, there are stories about Catholic priests taking a container of blessed ashes and heading into the New York City subway stations. Remarkably, simply by offering to place the cross of ashes on the foreheads of any who wish, the priests are routinely overwhelmed with commuters who wear the ashes publicly that day.
Of course, for those who are devout and practicing their faith, making the time to go to Mass on Ash Wednesday and be signed with Lenten ashes is not so surprising. But what is surprising is that many of the growing number of ash recipients are not regular church attendees.
What makes this even more extraordinary is the Church’s message is being conveyed with the imposition of ashes and embraced by those who may be sporadic in faith. The two options given by the Church remind the recipient to prepare for the day of death (“remember that you are dust”) or to reflect on the need to change their life (“repent and believe in the Gospel”). These messages are profound and important, but also challenging.
While different explanations for the interest in Ash Wednesday can be offered, we might well see it as a part of God’s love implanted in each one of us. That is to say, God has placed within every person a call of conscience, a sense of right and wrong, and behind that is the hand of God from which it comes. It is possible to dull our conscience or even to ignore it completely. What remains is a sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction with oneself and with the world that comes from sin. That is the lived experience of the words of St. Augustine, “our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” (Confessions 1,1,5).
It is possible that the gesture of receiving ashes can be only a momentary thing. And by doing so, it may be an attempt to show a sense of humility or seek a low-commitment nod to religion for a day in one’s life. Even in that case, God may be leaving an open crack in the spiritual door for a return to Him later.
For those of us who try to practice our faith more fully, we should embrace the ashes as the beginning of the Lenten season — a time to grow closer to God who loves us so deeply. We need to examine our sins and shortcomings. It is time to place our hearts in a mode of repentance and rejoice in a Lenten confession as a means of being reconciled to God.
Lent is a season of prayer, of charity for the poor and of seeking to forgive as we are forgiven. In a time when our society, and even our streets, are filled with anger and violence, we should use this Lent to see the dignity in every human being as a means of contributing to a world that loves as God wishes us to do.
So many are finding themselves lonely and left empty by the materialism and absence of God in our society and in our public values. Lent calls us to come home, back to God. Let’s enter into this Lenten season and so prepare ourselves to join the Risen Christ at Easter.
Happy Ash Wednesday.
