Ashes to ashes, we ALL fall down

Momento--Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, when the majority of the church worldwide enters a season of intentional fasting and reflection upon our mortality and the Evil that has put us in that position. This is, of course, all intended to lead us appropriately to the celebration of the Passion of the Messiah and his subsequent resurrection by God, wherein we celebrate God's victory over Evil through the Messiah.

I have the sign of Imperial Rome's capital punishment (i.e., the cross) on my head, drawn in ashes, to remember my personal demise, my own brokeness, my own involvement in the creation's slavery to Evil. And yet, in the mass where I received the sign of ashes, I could not portray a forced somberness (?) about my condition. It was too impossible not to remember the rest of the season, not to recall that it ends in Resurrection Sunday, the great triumph over death and captivity, that first day of the week that reminds us New Creation has begun and Death is working backwards (see Josh's post for some ideas on Recreation). I honestly had tears in my eyes and shivers down my spine and an impulse to shout out my sins (in a solemn Catholic Mass!) in anticipation of the next word spoken by our loving Father: the word of forgiveness and reconciliation.

I look forward to our next reading in Romans, which revisits these same themes of a broken and captive world being brought into healing and freedom. In the mean time, during Lent, Heidi and I are fasting. We are intentionally eating the way (type and amount) our Mozambican friends must eat everyday, in order to remember the pain of another part of the world. If you want to fast, but are unsure of what to do, or not do, think about your purpose and let that help guide you. Are you trying to remember your solidarity with a world less fortunate (Heidi and I)? Are you trying to make more space for prayer? Are you saving money to give to the poor? Are you allowing the mystery of the discipline to work in you?

Heidi and I used Psalm 90 as the meditation for Ash Wednesday. The Anglicans are using Psalm 103, and the Catholics are using Joel 2. All are focusing on the importance of this day/season.

From the Catholic Mass:

Lord . . . Aid us in our struggle against Evil!

For the gentlemen who are gathering tonight and who are interested in bearing the mark of death that is real life, I will be bring ashes to the bar!