SCRIPTUAL ROOTS

Where did the use of ashes come from?
 

• The use of ashes to express mourning and repentance is ancient; it is woven throughout the roots of the Old Testament.

• When Jonah comes to preach the need for repentance to the people of the city of Nineveh, they turn from their sinfulness, put on sackcloth and sit in ashes; thus the Lord spares them.

• Queen Esther, when her wicked husband King Ahasuerus wants to destroy the Jewish people, her people, does not rely on her great beauty to see them saved.  She turns to God, takes off her queenly garments, and puts on sackcloth, rubbing ashes into her hair and prostrating herself before the Lord whose power is greater than her own.

• The Jewish men, on the eve of a battle detailed in the First book of Maccabees, took the day before to beg the Lord for his mercy.  They did not rely on their own power; instead they put ashes on their heads, tore their clothes, put on sackcloth, and begged the Lord for his mercy, compassion, and power.

  • In the opening prayer (the Collect) at Mass on Ash Wednesday, we ask for the same mercy, compassion, and power for our own spiritual battles, particularly the ones we will face in Lent.

• In order to renew the covenant with God in the book of Nehemiah, the people of Israel come before the priest, Aaron, and confess their sins against God. They put on sackcloth and ashes.   To be made clean in the sight of God and his covenant with them, they were honest about their sins.  They desired cleanliness and freedom from sin.

• In the New Testament, Jesus himself hearkens back to these practices of the Jewish people; if only the people knew, he says in the 11th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, their own sinfulness, if only they would open their eyes to the truth, they would repent in sackcloth and ashes like their ancestors did.  We, too, are invited to own our sins; be honest about them; and offer our contrition to God.  This sign of the ashes sprinkled on our heads is just that: a reminder of our mortality, and of our sinfulness.

ASHES & PENANCE

 Why do we use ashes and add penances during Lent?
 

• "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
  Ashes humbly remind us that we are mortal; that we're not invincible; that we won’t live forever on this earth.  This reminder stirs our humility, reminds us that God is God and we are not, and helps us recognize our our need for the God who ‘formed us from the dust and breathed into us the breath of life’ (Gen 2:7).

• "Repent, and believe in the Gospel."
   Ashes also remind us that, as sinners, we have turned away from God in our hearts and in our actions.  The use of ashes are an act of humility before God, an act of sorrow for our sins, and an act of repentance.

• By receiving ashes, the faithful enter upon the season appointed for spiritual purification.  In this sign, we outwardly profess our guilt before God and thereby, prompted by the hope that the Lord is kind and compassionate, patient and abounding in mercy, express our desire for inward conversion. (from the Ceremonial of Bishops)

• Penances help us, guided by the grace of God, to turn us back toward God; they help us “express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others” (CCC 1434), particularly the penances of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.

• When something is blessed, it is “set aside” for the purpose of bringing grace by its use (think holy water; this is regular water blessed so that when we use it reverently, it can open our hearts to God's grace).  It is the same with the ashes; the blessing sets these ashes aside as a sign of our mortality but also as a sign of hope for redemption.