Ash Wednesday and Lent

First, here are some notes on the liturgy of Lent, as found in one of my missals. I've written before about the liturgical year. It follows, step by step, the life of Christ, from the Annunciation of His birth onwards. Ash Wednesday begins the season of penitence, examining our own human frailties and acknowledging our mortality - but with the promise of eternal life in Christ.

The Sundays of Lent, through the Gospel readings, help us to follow Our Lord through the three years of His public ministry.

First year: He spent forty days in the desert. We recall that in our forty days of Lent. Then He chose His first disciples, went into Galilee, then to Jerusalem to keep the first Passover. There He drove the moneychangers out of the Temple. He preached in Judea, went to Sichem and there converted the Samaritan woman. He preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, then went to Capharnaum and traversed all of Galilee.

Second year: Jesus returned to Jerusalem. He cured the paralyzed man at Bethsaida, returned to Galilee and preached the Sermon on the Mount. Returning to Capharnaum He cured the centurion's servant and at Naim raised the widow's son from the dead. He began preaching again in Galilee, then to Bethsaida-Julias in the Kingdom of Philip. Near there He multiplied the loaves. He walked to the shores of the lake on His way back to Capharnaum.

Third year: After this Our Lord traveled the regions of Tyre and Sidon, followed by His enemies. He granted the petition of the Canaanite woman, went back by Caesarea Philippi, returned to Galilee, where the Transfiguration of Mt. Tabor occurred. After arriving again at Capharnaum, He preached to the apostles on the mercy of God, then went to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. It was here that he confounded the Jews who accused Him of breaking the Sabbath. He pardoned the woman taken in adultery, taught in the Temple and cured the man born blind. Again in Galilee, He went into Perea where he restored speech to a dumb man, and showed how Jonas was a type of the Resurrection. Going to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Dedication, He returned to Perea, spoke the parables of the prodigal son, and of Dives and Lazarus. Called to Bethany He raised Lazarus from the dead. After visiting Ephrem He went back towards Jerusalem, at the same time foretelling His approaching death. In the Temple, for the second time He drove out the sellers, gave the parable of the wicked husbandmen and denounced the Pharisees' hypocrisy. Climbing the Mt. of Olives, He looked upon Jerusalem, where three days later he was to be put to death. He spoke to His disciples of the Judgment that for all eternity shall separate the good and the bad.

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   In former times, the Pope on this day of Ash Wednesday, walked barefoot to one of the churches in Rome "to begin with holy fasts the exercises of Christian warfare, that as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial."

   The Ninivites did penance publicly, in sackcloth and ashes. The Church today follows that example, to humble our pride and to remind us of the sentence of death imposed on Adam and Eve. With the Sign of the Cross, ashes are imposed on our foreheads with the words; "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust shalt thou return." These were the words spoken by God in the Garden of Eden.

   Before the first Mass of the day, ashes are blessed, from the burning of palms blessed on the previous year's Palm Sunday.  Several prayers are said, invoking the mercy of God. From the Old Testament, Joel 2.13, "Let us change our garments for ashes and sackcloth; let us fast and lament before the Lord: for plenteous in mercy is our God to forgive our sins."

   A final prayer, before Mass begins, asks: "Grant us, O Lord, to begin our Christian warfare with holy fasts; that as we are about to do battle with the spirits of evil we may be defended by the aid of self-denial. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen."

   Lent is a time of fasting and abstinence. In our modern days, the old, very stringent rules, have been relaxed somewhat. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are still strict days of fast and abstinence. Fasting means only one full meal a day, with two smaller meals not equaling one full meal. Abstinence is refraining from eating meat on those days, as it is on all Fridays (to observe self-denial, as a penance for the death of Christ on Friday).

   The Epistle for Ash Wednesday's Mass is from the Old Testament, Joel 2. 12-19. It starts, "Thus saith the Lord: Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning. And rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of evil."

  The Gospel, Matthew 6. 16-21, says in part: "At that time Jesus said to His disciples: When you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. but thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee........lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also."

Lent is for reflection, for self-denial and examination of soul. While we should feel the seriousness of the season and what it means, we should keep the words of Our Lord in our hearts, be uplifted by the promise of our final reward and observe the constraints put on us, not with reluctance and complaint, not to boast to our neighbor of our "sacrifices," but with quiet acceptance and joy. We are laying up treasure in heaven.