The Surprising Joy of Ash Wednesday

In a few minutes from now I’ll be leaving for a quiet, somber Mass with almost no singing, no Gloria, and at which we in the congregation will receive on our foreheads blessed ash in the shape of a cross.

Ash Wednesday is one of the most well-attended days of the year for Catholic churches, which seems a little strange at first glance. Apart from the fact that Ash Wednesday is not in fact a day you’re obligated to go to church as a Catholic, why would the day that people throng to church be the day that you make yourself stand out and publicly show contrition? Wouldn’t a day of rejoicing, like Christmas or Easter, seem a much more obvious choice?

I think, though, that the popularity of Ash Wednesday – even among people who aren’t regular church-goers – speaks to something inherent to us as humans, and speaks to what this day really means.

Obviously, what Ash Wednesday represents most basically is the beginning of Lent, the time of sacrifice and purification before Easter. In Lent, we are trying our best to follow Jesus’ example as He fasted in the desert for forty days before beginning His public ministry. Ideally, by the time that Holy Week and Easter arrive, our wills to sacrifice for God and our love for Him are strengthened, and we are able to enter into the mysteries of Easter with a cleaner and clearer heart.

Lent isn’t just focused on purification, though; it’s also focused on repentance. The ashes we receive on our foreheads symbolize two very interconnected things: our need for repentance, and our own mortality. In the book of Jonah (which will be read from at daily Mass next week), when the Ninevites hear Jonah’s message and realize their sin, they show their repentance by covering themselves in sackcloth and ashes. We, finding ourselves in the same position – called out from our sin by the message of God – symbolize our return to repentance by putting on ashes, as they did.

As the priest puts the ashes on our foreheads, he will repeat words which either focus on the repentance aspect of the ashes – “repent and believe in the Gospel” – or on the mortality aspect – “remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” These haunting words drive home to us the urgency of our repentance. God is calling us now, because if we wait, we may be too late. We can never know how long our life will be, and to delay acknowledging our sin and humbly turning to God would be foolish and dangerous.

And these two focuses of Lent, and particularly Ash Wednesday, may explain why the day is so popular. I think that everybody, whether they are religious or not, has an inner sense of their own sinfulness and their own need for repentance. And everyone has the sinking, lurking knowledge that death is coming at some point. Ash Wednesday provides the answer to these problems. We are sinners, and on Ash Wednesday we acknowledge that. We will all die, and on Ash Wednesday we face that fact head-on. But on Ash Wednesday we are invited to repentance and invited to take up our cross for Christ, and in this we find the solution to our fears, and we find peace and joy.

A blessed and holy Ash Wednesday to you!