It may be surprising that there is no mention of the Ash Wednesday in the Scripture. The question one will be pushed to ask then is: Why this celebration, why apply ashes on your faces, what's the meaning of that?
Ash is the end product of everything that is subjected to fire or burning. No matter how beautiful a thing is, when being burnt it because ashes. So also does the application of ashes reminds us of the following:
*1. OUR MORTALITY:* This is a reality that sometimes we don't want to hear, that one day we shall all die. Thus, Ecclesiastes 3:20, *"All are from the dust, and to dust all return".* That we shall return to dust makes it necessary for us to cry to the Lord for mercy and the desire to leave ours sins and return to the Lord with a broken heart (Joel 2:13).
*2. HOW MOURNFUL WE ARE:* We have all sinned and lawlessly departed from the way of the Lord. The application ashes shows sorry we are of our sins and we cry, "Have mercy on me O God for we have sinned" (Psalm 51:1)
*3. OUR REPENTANCE:* Being aware of our sins, we throw ourselves to the dust just like Job who out of anger spoke against God in Job 42:6. And like the people of Nineveh, we feel sorry for sins and show a sign of repentace by casting ashes upon ourselves (Jonah 3:59).
These three attitudes accompy us through the Lenten season, which is a period of forty (40) days, like Jesus who went into the desert for prayers and fasting for 40days.
Within the Lenten season, we are expected to take up three actions:
*1. PRAYER:* We pray that we do not fall into temptation (Mt 26:41). This prayer should aim at seeking God's mercy and forgiveness, and we do not need to do that to create people's attention just as the Pharisees do (Mt 6:5).
*2. FASTING:* It is a time we fast not just from food but we abstain from those wordly pleasures and sinful dispositions. We fast also from excessive drinking, smoking, eating etc with the target that the money we spend in getting those things will be saved for those in need. We need to do this fast because this is the acceptable time, the time of salvation (2 Cor 6:2).
*3. ALMS-GIVING:* What we have saved from our fasting should be use for almsgiving. Charity is an unavoidable character of Christianity. Christianity without almsgiving is incomplete. We remember, "Whatsoever you do to the least of our brothers, that you do unto me" (Mt 25:40).
Very important is that while we do charity, our left hand should not know what the right hand doing. We should not sound our trumpet like the hypocrites. We should not announce that we are giving assistance or charity. It is only then that our sacrifice, our prayer and our fasting wil merit us a reward from God.
Wishing you a grace filled Lenten season.
*Fr Livinus Chukwuemeka, SMMM.*
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