From a liturgical perspective, Ash Wednesday is a strange day in the life of the Church. We have our solemnities, our feast days and memorials. Most of what happens liturgically is meant to be rightly understood as celebrations. Then there is Ash Wednesday. It is a day when we fast, go to church and have ashes placed on our foreheads; we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Morbid?
I believe there is something healthy about it. I am entertained by every other health study that says if you eat this or drink that you will decrease your chances of death by however many percentage points … as if death can be avoided. Now, don’t get me wrong: Living a healthy lifestyle is well and good. However, Ash Wednesday offers a different kind of “news flash,” like living increases your chances of death.
We might be tempted to dismiss the whole ashes and death thing as being morbid. However, I see the focus of Ash Wednesday as being more like medicine. We all know that the experience of death is a consequence of being alive. But the reverse is true as well. The reminder of our mortality invites us to live our lives more fully and to reject sin so to be more fully alive.
You see, the reminder “you are dust and to dust you shall return,” whether spoken to us or not in the liturgy, invites us to “repent, and believe in the Gospel,” which is another option a minister can say when administering ashes. These words invite us to not squander the precious time we have been given on this earth and to truly live in a manner that pleases God.
Contemplating our mortality is a helpful motivator as we begin focusing on our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We pray more during Lent to grow closer to God, our creator and our Lord. We fast during Lent to remind ourselves there is more to life than comforts. We give charitably for the benefit of the poor to remind ourselves that we are in this thing called life together, and we cannot authentically love God unless we also love our neighbor.
Indeed, days like Ash Wednesday stand in stark contrast to most other liturgical celebrations. However, I find it therapeutic that the liturgy on this important day in the life of the Church does not discriminate. It doesn’t matter whether we are rich or poor. It doesn’t matter if we are young or old. We are all sinners, and we need a savior. We are all mortal, and our time is limited.
With this knowledge, we can choose to live. We can choose to live more fully by the measure we love God and love our neighbor. We can choose to live more fully by rejecting sin and by following the Gospel. We can choose to live more fully in this world and the next by following Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life.
Bishop Frank Schuster is an auxiliary bishop of Seattle, also appointed regional bishop serving the southern region of the archdiocese. Have a question about the Catholic faith for Bishop Schuster? Email it to [email protected].