Nothing says "You're gonna die" like pressing dirty black soot onto our forehead and reminding us that we are dust, and unto dust we shall return. Why such a morbid message? Why does the Church have such a harrowing holy day such as Ash Wednesday? I much prefer Fat Tuesday (fastnacht?) or as it happened this year, Super Fat Tuesday. No doubt the average person, let alone the average Catholic, was caught up more in election attention than anything else. And while politics deserves its proper place, Thursday morning came and I realized how easily I had gone through the motions of Ash Wednesday. But when the black ash still crowned my forehead as I looked through sleepy eyes into the mirror early this morning, I remembered the words, "Remember you are dust, and unto dust you shall return."
Of course, some priests use the much more agreeable phrase, "Turn away from sin, and be faithful to the Gospel." And while this commandment is nonetheless a Lenten mandate, I still find rich meaning, even in its morbidity, with the dust unto dust diction. Where else can one go to be reminded of the fact that one's body will one day be in the mud? Where else can one contemplate the meaning of death, if not in church? The rest of the world scoots around death, what with their "ageless facial creams" and promises of youth fountains. Graveyards don't make for pleasant afternoon walking trails, and planning for retirement is of far more importance than planning for eternity. Death is always sudden and unexpected. But really death is the only thing you can expect, and by placing ashes on my forehead, the Church reminds me that I should expect it today.
But this doesn't add up to gloom. Rather, if understood within the greater teaching of the Church, the reminder that you will be compost is trumped by the reminder of what Christ really did: conquer death. The message must be twofold. Lent teaches us about our mortality, Easter teaches us about our immortality. But you must teach both in order for either to have its true meaning.
For without the promise of the Resurrection, death has no meaning. This is why all of mankind, in every age, and in every civilization had to deal with the question of death, and ultimately the question of God. Why do we die? What does it mean? Is it really the end? When Christ rose from the mud of the grave he destroyed death, not by making death go away, but by giving it meaning. For those who believe in the Son of God, death is not the end, it is now a path from our mortal life to eternal life. But equally true, and this is what Ash Wednesday recalls, is that eternal life has no meaning without death. What Christ did was not just a fancy display of divine power, showing his uncanny resistance to earthworms. Jesus does not say, "Oh don't worry about death, just try to ignore it and live a good life." But he does say, "Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live." Jesus' death and Resurrection are for us, so that we too can go into the mud with the hope of rising out of it again. Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.
Jesus adds, and unto life you shall return...but we must wait until Easter to celebrate that. For now, in ashes, let us remember our mortality by feeling hunger (fasting), reaching out to God (prayer), and turning away from sin (repentance).
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