ASH
WEDNESDAY SERVICES:
WEDNESDAY MARCH 2, 2022 @ 7 P.M.
Ashes are a symbol. The goal is transformation.
For some time now, for so
many of us, the words have sounded somber yet stilted. A bit too morose. Yes,
we will all die. Someday. But not today. Not I. Never today. Never I.
Like everything else that
stands beyond human life—God, time and space—we might claim to understand
death, but we do not know it. Our own death is not a part of life, something we
experience and learn from. It is life’s limit. Small wonder that the true
thrust of this sacred season, resurrection, eludes even our imagination.
We do know from history
that no way of life is eternal, that cultures and civilizations, as the work of
human hands, must pass. But we only know from experience a small fraction of
history, our own lives. The rest is inherited guidance. Lessons well learned
but easy to forget.
“Remember you are dust
and to dust you shall return.” We hear this admonition again. Not that this
year it will finally sound out the bottom of our souls. That is why some of
us—but only some of us—will hear it again a year from now, when it will burrow
perhaps better still..
We go to church and have the Sign of the
Cross traced on our foreheads, in dark black ash. Then we leave the church, where not only
“others” but everyone can tell we are marking Lent Hopefully, for most people Lent is far deeper than this
outward sign.
One of my favorite words in the Gospels is one
used by both John the Baptist and Jesus. They both talk about “metanoia,”
a Greek word that means a change not only of mind but of heart. Sometimes
it’s translated as “repentance.” And that’s accurate, but in English that means
mainly being sorry for your sins. Metanoia is deeper. It’s a wholesale turning
around, a re-orientation of everything. And you can do that whether or not
your face is clear or dirty
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