What Ash Wednesday Is—and Isn't

We don't often have Mass in the convent chapel just with the sisters. I mean, there is a weekly Mass here, but it is at noon on Fridays, so a regular contingent of devotees shows up for that. But this week we had an early morning Mass in the convent chapel, followed by breakfast with the celebrant, a local pastor. In the course of the conversation, Father mentioned the dread with which he faces Ash Wednesday when people he doesn't see all year show up to get ashes on their face! Do they know what they are doing? "And don't get me started about the babies..." 

Now, I see things a bit differently. For one, those people who only come to church on Ash Wednesday? Maybe it's the one time every year that they reaffirm their membership in the church, however threadbare the connection may be. I see that as a great thing! 

Anyway, that conversation got me thinking about Ash Wednesday practices and maybe some of the misconceptions related to them. What do you have to add to these?

Ashes are not a blessing, but a challenge. I think a lot of people go to get ashes under the impression that it is a kind of general absolution, a blessing of sorts. And it is true that the ashes themselves are blessed; they are a sacramental. But the benefit of receiving them corresponds to our interior dispositions of faith, not on the ashes. Someone who gets ashes with absolutely no intention of committing to a deeper relationship with God on any level is simply getting dirt put on their face. Even so, perhaps the Word of God that is spoken (whether it is "You are dust" or "Repent and believe") will find a place to lodge within the soul and work like an enzyme to eventually renew the person.

Ashes are not for babies. I mean, okay....the baby is going to die one day. But ashes are for people who make their own choices. And who sometimes make choices they need to repent of. Because at the point of death ("to dust you shall return"), those choices will be there to escort them to the resting place they have created. As for the babies,  there's little point in telling an infant to think of death. Hopefully, though, if they are imposed, the ashes on a child's tender skin will remind the parents to always act in view of the child's eternal destiny: God made us for heaven, not for earth. 

The ashes mark a beginning, not an end. Even though the ashes signify the end of our earthly life, receiving them is a sign that we intend to begin living differently while on earth. So the ashes are not an end in themselves, but a sign of something else: our resolution to open our ears, our hearts, and our lives to the Word of the Lord, counting on grace to see us though.