Brothers and Sisters,
Every year, I find myself moved by the Ash Wednesday liturgy. While the entire rite is meaningful to me, I regularly find myself reflecting on the prayer for the blessing of the ashes:
Almighty God, you have created us from the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be for us a symbol of our mortality and a sign of our penitence, that we may remember that it is by your grace alone that we receive the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
That short prayer sums up so much about the Christian life, in general, and about what we remember on Ash Wednesday. God is eternal; we are not. We are created from the dust of the earth, and we will return to earth. Our mortality is before us. We will not live forever. We’ve sinned, and so we’ll die. We are called to repentance because God is holy, and we’ve fallen short of his glory.
Notice, however, what the prayer doesn’t say. It doesn’t call us to despair. It doesn’t call us to doubt the offer of eternal life through Christ our Lord.
The ashes are a reminder of God’s grace to us. Yes, we’ve sinned. Yes, we’re mortal. Still, God is merciful. Yes, we’re made of dust, but God is able to raise dust to new life. Yes, we’re going to die, but Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
We don’t receive the ashes or observe Lent because we’re trying to appease an angry, distant God. We receive the ashes and observe Lent because we are saved by his grace alone. Our salvation is in Christ. His blood pardons us. His resurrection gives us life. We don’t withdraw from him. We draw near to him in faith, trusting that his grace is more than sufficient, even for creatures of dust.
In Christ,
Fr. Caleb