Lenten Bothering

Ash Wednesday marks an important Holy Day in the Christian Calendar. Many people suppose that this is a purely Catholic concern. But it is not. I am told Lutherans, Methodists and some Baptists also keep Ash Wednesday and distribute ashes to the faithful.

As with many things Catholic, it is safe to assume the ashes on the foreheads of the faithful may cause discomfort or curiosity. And it makes sense that it would.

So long gone are the days when Religious in their collars and habits would mingle with the laity in the public haunts that any outward sign of religiosity (eg. think Tebow and Santorum, or the family in a restaurant saying grace before their meal) appear very out-of-place.

I decided that for my first post here I would then go on about this Ash Wednesday thing—in part to assuage the feelings of those who find the smudged ashen foreheads unsettling and/or odd.

Ash Wednesday kicks-off Lent, and Lent precedes Easter.

Lent is a to be a time of hard-core inner reflection. It is the time in the Church Calendar where we are called to “go into the desert” (of our soul) and appraise what we find there. To take an honest look at ourselves as we are today, and note where we fail to conform to what we are called to be as Christians. In reflecting inwardly and owning the aspects that fall short of the mark, we are to arrive at convictions. The process of ongoing improvement that takes place each year orients us properly to what actually matters in the long run: the disposition of the soul.

Ash Wednesday is a solemn occasion for a joyful people. We are reminded that our lower self is temporal and will pass, whereas our higher self is eternal. The former state and the fact that each of us will pass from this world—that each of us shall die the physical death—is bitter to contemplate. On the surface, being reminded that we are dust, and to dust we shall return is a downright buzzkill. Yet, it is right and good to be reminded of this fact. The ashes smudged on the foreheads signify this. To the recipient, it is an external representation that spurs inward assessment. I am going to die a physical death, and I do not know the hour of that occurrence. Outwardly, the ashes signify that we really are not of this world, but rather pilgrims all.

For Catholics, who generally do not knock on people’s doors to proselytize, it is also a keen reminder that we do have a real responsibility to publicly evangelize in our own quiet way.

Ash Wednesday is grave. We mourn for the worldly who have forgotten themselves and and persist in spite of the fact that death does not discriminate . . . but mostly we mourn for ourselves in particular, how we continue to toil and fall short.

Newly minted Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Yet, as now-Cardinal Timothy Dolan commented during his audience with the Pope,

When I was a new seminarian at the North American College here in Rome, all the firstyear men from all the Roman theological universities were invited to a Mass at St. Peter’s with the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal John Wright, as celebrant and homilist. We thought he would give us a cerebral homily. But he began by asking, “Seminarians: do me and the Church a big favor. When you walk the streets of Rome, smile!”

So, point five: the missionary, the evangelist, must be a person of joy.

“Joy is the infallible sign of God’s presence,” claims Leon Bloy. When I became Archbishop of New York, a priest told me, “You better stop smiling when you walk the streets of Manhattan, or you’ll be arrested!”

A man dying of AIDS at the Gift of Peace Hospice, administered by the Missionaries of Charity in Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s Archdiocese of Washington, asked for baptism. When the priest asked for an expression of faith, the dying man whispered, “All I know is that I’m unhappy, and these sisters are very happy, even when I curse them and spit on them. Yesterday I finally asked them why they were so happy. They replied ‘Jesus.’ I want this Jesus so I can finally be happy.” A genuine act of faith, right?

The New Evangelization is accomplished with a smile, not a frown.

For all those brothers and sisters in Christ, I wish you a very fruitful Lenten Season. At the end of Lent is Easter! Our hope.

Share