Ash Wednesday

The readings appointed for Mass this day in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (USA) are taken from the Joel 2:12, and St. Matthew 6:16.

To most attentive worshipers, these lections would seem to be preaching contradictory messages. On the one hand, the Prophet Joel would seem to call for a holy fast, “Turn ye even to me, saith the Lord, with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning...Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar....” For those involved in the Right to Life movement, the National Day of Prayer, or other public penitential movements, this imagery is not at all foreign. Our liturgical worship on this day evokes some of this sentiment as well.

By contrast the Gospel lection enjoins, “When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” Is not this teaching contrary to our liturgy, the solemn assemblies such as National Day of Prayer, or the forty-day fasts called by Protestant leaders? What do we make of this?

I suspect the reason behind the choice of these lessons has nothing to do with a sinister anti-liturgy, puritanical, or anti-catholic plot. The Prophet Joel calls us to keep a holy Lent. Now is the time for fasting. We who have been joyful and comforted over the previous season through the celebration of our Lord's Nativity and Epiphany are called to be confronted with our own sinfulness, our mortality, the sin-corrupted world we live in, and understand that indeed, salvation did not come through a flourish of God's magic wand, but rather came through the Son of God living, suffering, and dieing as one of us. In order to deliver us from sin and redeem corrupted creation, he had to endure the effects of sin (cf. Romans).

The Gospel lection calls us to fast rightly. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are not good works done to be seen by men and thereby earn us praise and honour from their lips. I say go and receive the ashes on your forehead and take on a discipline. But be warned against lifting up your heart in pride. Remember that all our righteousnesses are bloody rags. There is nothing wrong with the tradition we have received and follow. We worship with our whole body. As such external things, like ashes, matter as a way of making tangible the internal and invisible, and helps keep a communal understanding of the fast.

In conclusion, let us make our Lent holy. Let us live simply, come to terms with our sinfulness, and look to God for forgiveness and grace, whose love for mankind was so great that he became man, lived, suffered, and died for our sins, but rose again, ascended to God's right hand, and will come again in glory.

Almighty God, we give you thanks for the gift of your Son, Jesus the Christ, who took on our human nature to redeem us from death and reconcile us to you in his body; we especially ask that as we embark with him upon the long journey to Mount Calvary, we might be given the grace to put to death the sinful affections of our flesh and cultivate new, holy habits, so that in this time, and throughout all our life, we might show your love and glory to all men. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.