Ash Wednesday
5 March 2025
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the season of Lent. We start a journey and like all journeys it has a destination and ours is Easter. St Benedict encourages us in the chapter on Lent, to look forward with the joy of spiritual longing to the holy feast of Easter (RB49:7). Easter is the pinnacle of our Christian life, that moment when through his passion, death and resurrection Jesus Christ won for us eternal life. But before we get there we must begin in the dust.
Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Ashes, dust, earth this is a strong image placed before us, a symbol the Church gives us on this first day of Lent. It is meant to make us stop and think. The Latin for earth, ground, and soil is humus. On Ash Wednesday we are being grounded, rooted back into the earth. During these days of Lent St Benedict tells us we are supposed to wash away in this holy season the negligences of other times. Here we have the gateway of opportunity; do we seize it or do we let it slip away? If we are honest with ourselves familiarity breeds contempt and this can happen in the spiritual life as equally as it can happen in the normal humdrum round of life. This is why St Benedict tells us that the life of a monk ought at all times to be Lenten in character. (RB49:1) St Benedict, Father of Monks, with the wisdom of long experience, understood human nature and knew that few have the strength for this. (RB49:2) Lent is our wakeup call! Now is the time to rid ourselves of the spiritual flab. But what is the point?
At Mass on Ash Wednesday the first reading is from the Prophet Joel 2:12-18. I love the first couple of verses. They are the perfect setting for the beginning of Lent and it is why the Church gives them to us.
Thus says the Lord,
‘return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
It speaks to us of that conversion of heart, that returning to the Lord, the metanoia, that change the Lord longs to see in each one of us. He wants us to return to him and Lent is our opportune time.
For us here in the northern hemisphere we are, hopefully coming out of the last throes of winter and heading into spring. Lent is from the old English word meaning the lengthening of days. It is a beautiful time of year when our gardens and countryside begin to wake up, when below the old leaves of last autumn, new life is putting up shoots. To help things along any good gardener will be out clearing the ground, pulling out the weeds which have managed to grow. In our spiritual life we have become lazy; the sins of this world, the weeds, have been allowed to grow. How much have we allowed self-indulgence, self-centredness to slip into our relationship with God? Do we really prefer nothing to the love of Christ? (RB4:21)
In Lent we are given the tools to help weed out the negligences of other times; prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Prayer is like the manure that feeds the spiritual life: the fasting is helping to free up the space within for the presence of God to fill. We can fast from food but there are also other things we can fast from: social media, television, too much talking especially when it can lead to gossip.
St John Chrysostom insists that our fasting should be kept not by the mouth alone but also by the eye, the ear, the feet, the hands and all the members of the body.
Being aware of murmuring too, this is death-dealing to the spiritual life.
Almsgiving helps us to focus on giving of self, going that extra mile for our brothers and sisters, especially those we live and work with, particularly those around us in need. Further afield we can give money to charity, especially to those who help in the third world. Particularly when so many aid charities are finding their budgets are being cut by government. Giving to them at this time is very important and part of almsgiving.
In the monastery, St Benedict instructs us to inform our superior, the abbot or abbess, of our plans for Lent in terms of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting c.f.(RB49:8). This practice helps monks and nuns prepare for Lent by considering what will deepen their relationship with Christ. Instead of creating a lengthy list, we focus on a few meaningful actions that can be performed well and truly lead to the new life that Easter promises, by opening our hearts and allowing God to change us.
St Benedict asks that we receive a book for Lent (RB48:15). In recent years we have always chosen a book of Scripture, maybe one of the Gospels or from St Paul’s letter; or maybe one of the Old Testament Prophets. But you can use any spiritual book that you will find helpful. This prayerful reading, lectio divina is feeding you, and helping to transform you into the likeness of Christ. It is part of that manure feeding your spiritual life. It is opening the ears of your heart.
As we begin Lent on Ash Wednesday there will be days that are hard and difficult and we may even fail. We may even find ourselves back in the dust. But do not become disheartened and run away from the road that leads to life, because that is exactly where we are heading to, new life. Lent is all about this new life, of dying to self to rise to Christ. We must pick ourselves up and continue on the journey.
This year both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox will celebrate Easter on the same day. I will conclude with the prayer Orthodox say on the first day of Lent.
The Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian
O Lord and Master of my life, keep from me the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter.
Instead, grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of wholeness of being, humble-mindedness, patience, and love.
O Lord and King, grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brethren; for You are blessed now and ever and forever. Amen.
Sr Andrea