Ash Wednesday

In the words of Fr. Robert Greene, “Here we are again.”

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. For the next 40 days we focus on three things: prayer, fasting, and giving/charity. We pray for God’s forgiveness and repent our sins in order to be able to move closer to God, to more fully receive His love. We choose to give up something, to fast, as a reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice. We give to others in response to the beautiful gift of life that we have been given. A gift that does not last forever.

How Fr. Greene reminds us of our impermanency in one of his Lenten homilies really struck me.

“The season of Lent has very ancient origins in the history of the Church. […] The name Lent for this season is peculiar to the English language. In German this season before Easter is called ‘A Time of Fastin.’ In Latin, French and Italian it is simply name ‘A Forty Day Period.’

However, the English term Lent is very appropriate and stresses the aspect of the Holy Season that is also stressed int he liturgy of Ash Wednesday.

Lent was used in Middle English for anything that was loaned to a person. When we receive the Blessed Ashes today on our foreheads the words spoken remind us starkly that our time on Earth is lent to us: ‘Remember that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.’

This is a sobering thought, but one it is far better to acknowledge than to deny. As we leave church today we display for ourselves and others a sign of our mortality. We should be grateful for this reminder and we are grateful for this time of grace lent to us.”

While his homily is undated, Fr. Greene wrote these words during his forty years promoting Maryknoll’s mission from its Philadelphia, Detroit and Cincinnati Development Houses. As I shared his words with my co-worker, she mentioned that he must have poignantly felt his “time of grace” especially in light of the dire circumstances in which he found himself during his early mission years. Arriving at his first mission station in Kweilin, China in 1937, Fr. Greene endured bombings during World War II. He also survived house confinement, arrest, and torture by Chinese Communists from October 1950 until his banishment from China in April 1952. He details his experiences in his 1955 book Calvary In China.

During Lent, especially on Ash Wednesday, let us take Fr. Greene’s “sobering” reminder to heart. Let the “Blessed Ashes” we receive on our foreheads remind us that our lives are gifts from God. Let us accept whatever time we’ve been given with grace, living each day fully seeking a closer relationship with God, mindful that one day “to dust you shall return.”

Resources for Lent: