Ash Wednesday: March 5

: March 5,  2014  Ash Wednesday

Tonight:  7:00 p.m.  Liturgy for Ash Wednesday

Imposition of Ashes and Holy Eucharist

Ash Wednesday is one of the most solemn and significant events of the Church Year.  It marks the beginning of Lent which is the period of preparation for Easter.  The Preface for  the Eucharistic Prayer in Lent puts it this way:   

You bid your faithful people cleanse their hearts and prepare with joy for the Paschal Feast, that fervent in prayers and in works of mercy, and renewed by your Word and Sacraments, they may come to the fullness of grace, which you have prepared for those who truly love you. 

 There is a lot here.  The word “cleanse,” is also used in St. John’s Gospel in Jesus’ discourse on the True Vine where it means “pruning”  “Every branch that does not bear fruit he cleanses, or prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”  So you have the idea of getting rid of things that get in the way of our flourishing, or, “The glory of God is Man and Woman fully alive.”  It is not a pleasant experience, particularly when the cleansing involves things deeply rooted and long standing.  “Prepare with joy for the Paschal Feast,”  that is get ready and anticipate and begin to live from the joy that comes to us at Easter.  We’re getting ready for something wonderful, the most wonderful thing there is.  “Fervent in Prayer and in Works of Mercy,” tells us that Lent is not just about “giving things up,” its about taking things on, good things like expressions of love for God in prayer, and love for one another in actions that are kind and compassionate.  “Renewed by Word and Sacraments,”  that is what they are for, and Lent is a time to focus deeply on that and receive all they offer.  Finally, the “Fullness of Grace,” which is we are made ready to share fully all God wishes to bestow, which is his whole self to us.   

Lent is not an easy season.  We ponder what it is about us that makes it necessary for Jesus to lose his life and to lose it in the way he does.  It’s not so much about listing our faults as acknowledging our afflictions, those we endure and those we perpetrate in what one writer has called, “the hell of self knowledge.  We can do that and believe it or not do it with joy because the Good News is that words of the imposition of ashes, Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return, is not the last word, but only the first and that Ash Wednesday leads us to Easter and our sharing in Christ’s Risen Life.