Ash Wednesday (2023)

In the early Church,

Lent was the final period of intensive spiritual preparation

for those who were going to become Christians

through baptism at Easter.

These catechumens,

– which is the official name for this group of people –

were turning away from their previous life.

In the waters of baptism,

they were going to be immersed in Christ’s death

and emerge into Christ’s resurrection life.

In this gift of God, everything was going to change for them,

so they wanted to prepare themselves.

I once heard our previous bishop, Bishop John, say,

– so I am going to assume it is correct –

that early Christians were so impressed

by the fervour and enthusiasm of the catechumens’ preparations,

that they decided to imitate them.

And so Lent extended to the whole Christian community.

I find this explanation of how Lent came about helpful.

It really puts the focus on Lent

as a preparation for the wholehearted remembrance,

in the Holy Week and Easter ceremonies,

of the Pascal Mystery, of Christ’s saving death and resurrection,

and the accompanying joyful delight in the gift of our own baptism.

Taking ashes expresses a desire to undertake this spiritual preparation. The accompanying words challenge us.

The more explicit form is:

Repent and believe in the Gospel.

The fundamental sense of ‘the Gospel’, ‘the Good News’,

is ‘the person of Jesus Christ’. 

The fundamental sense of ‘believe’ is ‘have faith in’, ‘know and trust’. 

The fundamental sense of ‘Repent’ is ‘look at things differently’, ‘change’, ‘reform your approach’.

So the challenge can be re-expressed as:

be open to reform by turning towards the person of Jesus Christ

and letting knowledge and trust grow.

The alternative words are:

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

Less explicit, but, heard in context, its underlying sense is the same.

Both forms challenge us to pay attention to what is truly important,

and to expect doing that to change our lives.

We are to let Jesus gaze on us, with love, from the Cross.

We are to let his gaze change us,

and so deepen our annual celebration of the wonders of that love

in the Easter Triduum.