Ash Wednesdsay
Lent has begun.
Catholics are called to 40 days of spiritual preparation in anticipation of the glory of Easter. On each Friday we are obligated to abstain from eating meat, and we are encouraged to devote ourselves to the good works Christ commends to us; we are called to fast, to pray, and to give alms.
And we are called to do so in a spirit of humility and smallness.
Father Edmund, our pastor, suggested that Lent is something that is, in a way, imposed on us by the Church, and for our own good. And it all begins on Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting that we are required to observe.
The forty days of Lent recall several events in the Biblical history, but none so clearly as the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the desert. There he was tempted by the devil, and prevailed.
The more seriously I take my faith, the more I understand the seriousness of what I am called to. The special character of the Ash Wednesday service is the imposition of the ashes of the burnt fronds from the last year's Palm Sunday. The palms recall the triumphant entry of Jesus the Christ into God's city, Jerusalem. Those fronds, the palms of triumphant entry laid at the feet of Christ the King, are burnt up, consumed in fire, and what remains, lifeless ash and coal, is marked in a Cross on the forehead of the devoted. And the words are intoned, "Remember, man, you are dust, and to dust you will return (Gen 3:19)".
You were not, and you will be not. You will die.
Such is our invitation to the forty days in the desert, where we are promised a struggle with the devil himself.
It is no small relief that the forty days of Lent do not include Sundays. Every Sunday is Easter, the Feast of the Resurrection.
Fast, pray, give alms.
Be humble, be small.
You will die.
This will all conclude with Holy Week: the scourge, imprisonment, indignity, execution and a tomb.
But on the horizon, the Sun is rising.
Catholics are called to 40 days of spiritual preparation in anticipation of the glory of Easter. On each Friday we are obligated to abstain from eating meat, and we are encouraged to devote ourselves to the good works Christ commends to us; we are called to fast, to pray, and to give alms.
And we are called to do so in a spirit of humility and smallness.
Father Edmund, our pastor, suggested that Lent is something that is, in a way, imposed on us by the Church, and for our own good. And it all begins on Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting that we are required to observe.
The forty days of Lent recall several events in the Biblical history, but none so clearly as the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the desert. There he was tempted by the devil, and prevailed.
The more seriously I take my faith, the more I understand the seriousness of what I am called to. The special character of the Ash Wednesday service is the imposition of the ashes of the burnt fronds from the last year's Palm Sunday. The palms recall the triumphant entry of Jesus the Christ into God's city, Jerusalem. Those fronds, the palms of triumphant entry laid at the feet of Christ the King, are burnt up, consumed in fire, and what remains, lifeless ash and coal, is marked in a Cross on the forehead of the devoted. And the words are intoned, "Remember, man, you are dust, and to dust you will return (Gen 3:19)".
You were not, and you will be not. You will die.
Such is our invitation to the forty days in the desert, where we are promised a struggle with the devil himself.
It is no small relief that the forty days of Lent do not include Sundays. Every Sunday is Easter, the Feast of the Resurrection.
Fast, pray, give alms.
Be humble, be small.
You will die.
This will all conclude with Holy Week: the scourge, imprisonment, indignity, execution and a tomb.
But on the horizon, the Sun is rising.
posted by Eric at 12:02 AM
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