Wearing the Ash

Gospel: Matthew 6: 1-6; 16-18

Ash Wednesday is here again, a day when many attend church services and are eager both to receive ashes and to display them for all the world to see.  It is a way of telling others that we have been to church today, that we are faithful Christians who have done our duty to begin the season of Lent as we ought.  All this in spite of Jesus' command in today's Gospel: keep your works of mercies in secret.

And what is more, the ashes do not at all signify that we are faithful Christians, but rather that we are not! To receive ashes today is to acknowledge that we are sinners, that we are ever in need of God's mercy, and that we are to be an instrument of God's mercy to others in the world.  It is to remember that we are mortal, that one day we will die and that our bodies - of which we are so enamored and preoccupied -  will return to dust and ashes.   

Today begins a season of recommitment to the works of mercy, a deepening of mercy that should ever be a part of our Christian life.  What we give up in fasting we are to give to the poor, and what we atone for in our lives we may have forgiveness and mercy toward others.