|
Navigating Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day
We’re just a few days away from Ash Wednesday, an important and popular day in the Christian liturgical calendar. In our Catholic tradition, the Ash Wednesday Mass is more popular than any other day of the year, including Christmas and Easter. Many say it can have triple the attendance of an average Sunday. I don’t claim to understand why but perhaps wearing ashes publicly touches something deep within us. It speaks to an existential experience of our humanity. All of us are plagued by our choices and our sins. We need and desire to acknowledge our own sinfulness and our fragile condition. Ashes, the burnt remnant of last year’s palm, speaks to the burnt remnant and brokenness of our own lives. As we look at our own and one another’s forehead, perhaps some silent, inner, gestation process teaches us what it means that we are dust and that we are invited to turn from sin to the Gospel. It speaks into humanity’s fragility and provides hope telling us, though we are destined for dust, there is one who can give us everlasting life. We are invited to come and follow him this Lent.
On Ash Wednesday our faith is visible and somehow communal. It calls us to rise to the occasion even if we are dormant the rest of the year. What those ashes on our forehead say may be different for each of us but the public nature of it calls us to a Lenten penance that is not only internal and individual but also external and social, recognizing and committing to somehow counter “the social consequences of sin.” It is an invitation to a fresh start. Michael Moore OM, https://oblates.ie/gospel-reflection-ash-wednesday-st-valentines-day/ , tells us “Lent…is not about becoming lost in feelings of brokenness, but about cleansing the palate so that we can taste life more fully. Lent and Easter reveal the God who is for us in all of life – for our liberation, for our healing, for our wholeness.” It is an invitation to become more loving and forgiving like the God who lives within us.
Although I recognize the importance of Ash Wednesday, this year Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s day fall on the same day. This happened in 1923, 1934, 1945, and 2018 and will happen again in 2029; so, the calendar clash is rather rare. My non-penitential and romantic heart was hoping the Bishops would either dispense with or transfer the fast and abstinence of Ash Wednesday to Thursday and allow a proper celebration of Valentine’s Day. But instead their suggestion is to celebrate Valentine’s day on Shrove Tuesday (also known as fat Tuesday) along with Mardi Gras. Rational as that is my heart had hoped that OVERT EXPRESSIONS of LOVE (even if sometimes shallow) would win over abstinence and fasting. After all God is LOVE.
Perhaps this co-incidence of celebrations is not coincidental. St Valentine, after all, was a third century saint who was martyred for performing Christian marriage ceremonies when they were banned in the Roman Empire. His whole existence was about laying down his life for his Beloved God so that all could experience God’s love and express the love they have for one another. Perhaps St. Valentine’s witness offers the perfect way to commence our Lent on Ash Wednesday. Ron Rolheiser (https://ronrolheiser.com/our-struggle-in-faith-between-knowing-it-is-true-and-believing-it/#.YBREd-hKjIU ) tells us that at the heart of our faith is a fundamental truth: We are unconditionally loved by God. “You are my beloved child, in you I take delight!” We hear this over and over in different contexts and environments and know its truth, yet we can’t believe it or allow ourselves to fully live it. This Ash Wednesday/Valentine’s Day may you open your heart to truly believe how much you are loved. May the ashes placed on your forehead be for you a Valentine reminding you of that love. As you receive the ashes this year may you acknowledge your sinfulness but may your heart also remind you that God who is LOVE is within you loving and forgiving. You are love and unto love you shall return.
Preview Sheet 2023-2024
PS: Due to illness the Ash Wednesday Program from Palm to Ashes and the First Lenten Taize Prayer (Feb 22) are canceled.
| 
