By Dr Lawrence Pang
From at least the eighth century onwards, Ash Wednesday has marked the beginning of the Lenten season of prayer, fasting and alms giving.
As we journey towards Easter Sunday, we must reflect diligently on what Ash Wednesday means for us as Church lest we overlook the import of our preparation for the pinnacle of our liturgical life and the Christian faith.
Is it something I do for self-improvement like going to the gym? Is the reality of the fragility of life invoked by the imposition of ashes on our forehead more disheartening than hopeful? How can the symbolism of the ashes change my life? What do I give up for Lent? How is the Ash Wednesday of 2021 different to those that went before?
Although Ash Wednesday is not mentioned in scripture, it has deep biblical roots and gives us the nourishment we need for spiritual growth. Genesis 3:19 and Ecclesiastes 3:20 remind us of our human frailty in that we are dust and to dust we shall return.
Paradoxically, the preciousness of life is found in its fragility.
We are all invaluable to God and, therefore, we must value ourselves and invest in the well-being of everyone. We must live in ways that are truly life-giving. We are not independent creatures. We are reliant on God as the wellspring of life, and we must in turn be a source of life for others.
In Ezekiel 9:4, God commands the prophet to go through the city of Jerusalem and to put a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over the sins committed in the city as a mark of God’s delight for them.
This harks back to the familiar Passover narrative in the book of Exodus, wherein each Hebrew household smeared the blood of an unblemished lamb on the doorposts of their houses to signify to the angel of death to pass over them and not harm their occupants.
More significantly, the Hebrew verse in Ezekiel 9:4 states that the prophet was to put a mark in the form of a tav—the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet which also resembles a cross.
The tav was a symbol of salvation for those who would show remorse.
Thus, when a priest traces the sign of the cross with ashes on our foreheads and say to us “Repent and believe in the Gospel”, we are encouraged to be hopeful even though the sign is a stark reminder of our mortality.
We must reflect deeply on what is needed for genuine repentance. In biblical times, people put on sackcloth and tore their garments into pieces to demonstrate their desire to repent and return to the life that God expects.
However, in Joel 2:12, the prophet exhorts his people to rend their hearts and not their clothing. In Matthew 6:1-18, Jesus reminds us that our actions must not be mere activities. Instead, they must stem from our hearts.
Ashes must not remain a mere symbol on our foreheads; we must internalise the outward symbolism. The ashes on our foreheads must become ashes on our hearts, spurring us on to inward repentance and conversion.
However, repentance is not simply for personal growth.
It must have a communal goal. Ezekiel 9:4 offers us an insight that compels us to think beyond the self. Just as those who repented over the sins committed in the streets of Jerusalem and sought to restore social goodness were pleasing the Lord, we too must repent and give generously of ourselves to others.
The Ash Wednesday of 2021 demands that we reflect more deeply on our individual and collective responsibilities.
In the face of widespread sufferings and deaths arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, our fragility has come into sharp focus. While our collective response to the pandemic is encouraging, it is also clear that we are far from being the true human family of God whose members experience the warmth and care of each other.
The sufferings of others in God’s family must echo in each of our hearts and together we must respond to it.
We must recognise that despite our diversity we are one family on the same train to our destination in God—no one must be left behind.
Ashes on our foreheads can transform and save us if we take them to heart. Let us repent together, believe in the good news of God and approach Easter with a renewed sense of new life for all.
Editor’s Note
The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments has asked priests to take special anti-COVID-19 precautions this year when distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, 17 February 2021.
These instructions include sprinkling ashes on the top of people’s heads, rather than using them to make a cross on people’s foreheads.
The congregation’s note on the “distribution of ashes in time of pandemic” was published on the congregation’s website on 12 January, directing priests to say “the prayer for blessing the ashes” and then sprinkle “the ashes with holy water, without saying anything”.