Ashes to Ashes

"To walk around all day with a cross on your head is to walk around in a body inscribed with death. It is also, oddly, to walk around inscribed with hope -- the hope that comes through Jesus’ having joined us in our mortality." ~ Lauren Winner

Ash Wednesday is an odd day. People do not always get it. I liked Winner’s quote—it gets to the seriousness of the event. I have memories of walking around Honolulu with ashes on my head, having taken a break from vacation with a group of Catholic women to be “ashed” as I call it.

I took a writing course from Lauren Winner a few years back in Vancouver and appreciated her sensibility. The article I pulled this quote from tells of how she and a friend took the ashes to the streets in North Carolina to ash folks who were to busy to make it to a church for a service.

Tonight at my church, the priest and ministers changed the usual “Turn away from sin and follow the Gospel” or “Dust to dust and ashes to ashes” to some funky “Follow Jesus and believe in Him” or something. I didn’t quite catch it and it threw me. Wait…where is the long hard look at ourselves? Can we reach the same place if we don’t dwell on our sins and mortality? Isn't Lent about examining our souls and hoping to change something at the core of our being so that we are a step closer to living out the Gospel? Isn't that partially where the hope lies too? Are we so intent on laundering the language that we miss the point? I am not convinced and miss the chastisement to be honest. Who would have known?

Happy Lenten journey folks!

Peace,

Suzanne