ASH WEDNESDAY 2012
I know … I know what you all want to know …
You have tied up our phones, clogged up our emails and brought down our website with the urgent question of the day:
When … When do I get my ashes?
The answer is: After the collection!
After the collection, I am going to bless yonder ashes.
I ordered them some months ago from a religious goods supplier. They arrived by UPS in zip lock bags – uniform in color and texture.
They didn’t cost all that much.
I mean they are just ashes.
Just like you and me someday … just ashes!
Ashes are a common denominator for all living things.
So we all were; so we all will be again. Ashes are the point on the life cycle where it is easiest to see how foolish our great pretenses are.
Remember, you are dust, and to dust you will return!
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Probably, the direct origins of this Catholic rite lie in the sackcloth and ashes of our ancestors in scripture, and, in the pre-baptismal rites of third century converts.
Improbably, it is a Wednesday when this happens!
The middle of the week. Traffic moves slowly while work moves quickly. Schools and sports and shopping compete for your attention. Works of justice and charity exist alongside works of violence. It is precisely what fills our days that make it important to remember yonder ashes.
How else remember? What else rubs us the wrong way and the right way … a smudge of God’s good dirt as we bow our heads and bend our knees long enough to hear the first words of Lent 2012:
Turn away from sin …
Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel!