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The message of the ashes

These forty days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving – spent in union with our Divine Savior – hold out to us the firm promise and the sure confidence of a death which is but the gateway to an eternity of unending, unimaginable bliss.

(Image: Grant Whitty | Unsplash.com)

What is this strange fascination with ashes? By day’s end, in this Church of the Holy Innocents three blocks north of Macy’s in Midtown Manhattan, priests will have imposed ashes on the foreheads of thousands of people: fervent Catholics, lukewarm Catholics, apostate Catholics, and non-Catholics!

What power does that smudge of ash exert? Better yet, why?

Whether consciously or not, I suspect the average person recognizes something incredibly primal in the symbol of the ashes as their “wispiness” hints at our own vulnerability and mortality, reminding us that even Americans after a century of science and progress live under a death sentence. Millionaires and mighty boxers die just as surely as paupers and weaklings. But this realization should not give us cause to wallow in the macabre; the Church intends something quite different, something caught by T. S. Eliot in his poetic reflection on the meaning of this day.

In that 1930 poem Ash-Wednesday, written between the two world wars, Eliot begins with the line: “Because I do not hope to turn again. . . .” What does he have in mind?

The notion of “turning” is an extremely biblical concept. The Hebrew shuv bespeaks the attitude and action of “conversion” – that change of mind and heart which must-needs always lead to a change in action. The English poet knew that if this day has any significance beyond the superstitious or cultural, it has to elicit a change in behavior. St. Luke tells us that after Peter had denied his Lord, he “turned” and saw that sacred and agony-riddled Face. That turning toward the face of Christ launched Peter on the life-long journey of remaining “turned” toward the Master and away from the Evil One.

Today one coming forward to receive a token dab of ashes is not permitted thereby to make but a token commitment to “return.” The Lord of the ashes demands a hearty and heart-filled decision to move away from any thing or any person which might lead one away from Him, the jealous God who insists on our undivided love not because He needs it but because we need it, precisely in order to be fulfilled and happy, in the most profound sense of those words.

Not by accident, then, does T. S. Eliot take as his special model of life-long penitence the cloistered nun; for him, she is likewise a sign of hope. Contemplatives, you see, do intensively and in hiddenness what the rest of us must be about in the hum-drum existence of our daily lives in the world. They do not do the job for us; they merely point the way, albeit in very dramatic fashion.

The poet explains: “. . . where will the word resound? Not here, there is not enough silence . . . . The right time and the right place are not here. No place of grace for those who avoid the face, No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice.”

However, every day is Ash Wednesday for the one Eliot calls “the veiled Sister,” and the prayer of all such holy women is that our once-a-year observance of the occasion through silence and introspection, through listening to the Voice and looking to the Face, will put us in good stead for the remaining 364 days, but most especially for the final day when the King and Judge appears either to call us to Himself personally or to usher in the end-times – whichever comes first.

Interestingly and wisely, Eliot takes some very common lines of Christian prayer and intersperses them within his poem, as much as to say that these words we speak so often and perhaps so nonchalantly truly need to form the warp and woof of our spiritual pilgrimage. “Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,” from the “Hail Mary.” “Lord, I am not worthy, but speak the word only,” spoken hastily before Holy Communion. “And after this our exile,” from the Church’s night prayer to the Virgin. “O my people, what have I done unto thee?” comes the plaintive voice of the God of the Hebrews chanted in the Good Friday Reproaches. “Bless me, Father,” words used perhaps not often enough to move us toward the great sacrament of healing and forgiveness. “Suffer me not to be separated,” the humble prayer of the priest before his reception of the Body and Blood of the Savior. “And let my prayer come unto Thee,” the Psalmist’s plead which must always be our own.

Several times Eliot begs us to “redeem the time,” reminiscent of the ancient Roman “carpe diem” [seize the opportunity], or better yet, of the ancient prophets. Indeed, in striking manner, Holy Mother Church today dons the prophetic mantle of old Joel who, with urgency, in short, clipped and imperative sentences calls for a proper attention to the message of reform and renewal. Her hymn of preference for this day is the haunting rendition of Joel’s prayer: “Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo!” [“Spare, O Lord, spare your people!”]. St. Paul also stands in that prophetic tradition as he reminds us that “now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!”

With such exhortations ringing in our ears, we utter the words of Psalm 51 with deep conviction: “Miserere mei, Domine, miserere mei.” [“Have mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me.”]. It is the adulterous, murderous but repentant David who speaks, and we ask that his voice become ours. For he was a man whose sinfulness was only exceeded by his honesty and sorrow. May that grace be given to each of us.

The message of the ashes, then, is quite simple. The Judaeo-Christian Tradition – the biblical way of life, if you will – is not cyclical but linear. The ashes are intended to break the cycle of sin and death, setting us on a straight course toward infinity. These forty days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving – spent in union with our Divine Savior – hold out to us the firm promise and the sure confidence of a death which is but the gateway to an eternity of unending, unimaginable bliss.

And so, the ceremony of the ashes is a most fitting prelude to the entire holy season upon which we are embarking, a fitting prelude to whatever remains of our life here below.

(Editor’s note: This essay was posted originally on March 2, 2022.)


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About Peter M.J. Stravinskas 280 Articles
Reverend Peter M.J. Stravinskas founded The Catholic Answer in 1987 and The Catholic Response in 2004, as well as the Priestly Society of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, a clerical association of the faithful, committed to Catholic education, liturgical renewal and the new evangelization. Father Stravinskas is also the President of the Catholic Education Foundation, an organization, which serves as a resource for heightening the Catholic identity of Catholic schools.

10 Comments

  1. Ashes remind us of our mortality…that we shall one day die… a fact rejected and ignored by a secular world.

    It’s important to hear the traditional words spoken by the priest as he affixes Ashes, the physical reminder of death, to the forehead:

    “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

    Those words quicken the spirit to prepare, repent, and atone.

    • And until yesterday they included the admonishment to turn from sin. Yesterday my cheerful parish “woman minister”, whatever title they call her, who gave me ashes, told me about to share the good news. I didn’t know we skipped over the penitential period of lent and arrived at Easter that quickly.

        • The lady who marked the cross on my forehead yesterday used the traditional “Remember you are dust…” & she really applied those ashes in a substantial way. A *huge* cross on my forehead.
          I saw the Babylon Bee satire story yesterday about how the crosses on our foreheads helpfully reveal to the FBI who’s a domestic extremist. The FBI could spot me from a mile away yesterday.
          The church I went to in Mexico City last Ash Wednesday used a little cross -shaped sponge stamper to apply the ashes. So everyone went out looking the same. And they were giving out ashes straight through from early morning to late at night.

  2. The appears to be a reluctance on the part of many pastors to actually provide ongoing review and instruction to those civilians in a church ministry, including lectors, Eucharistic Ministers and servers. I hear it is because of their fear even mild criticism will cause many of these folks to bolt away and never return. To which I say, if their sensibilities are so tender they cannot face being told that their participation in the Mass needs to be improved in some way, feel free to leave. I am not intending to sound mean or dismissive. I am just a little weary of our clergy settling for “good enough” at Mass when we are supposed to give God our BEST. And at some point, you need to speak up to require some improvement.THAT is the job of the clergy. A group review meeting for each ministry would get the job done without singling out one, and hurting the feelings of the super-sensitive.The reality is, to be accepting of poor performance, when it can be improved with little effort, is really disrespect directed at God. “Good enough” is really NOT good enough.

    • Grew up with authoritative Dominican nuns and priests calling the shots. They were not fearful of regularly calling out the non conforms if necessary, and I doubt if they were concerned about them leaving.

      I do remember a decline in the faithful when they last changed the liturgy, the creed and now saying, “and with your Spirit,” instead of “and also with you.” But as you state, the spiritual leaders should do what is best for the parish and its sinners, not worry about everyone’s opinions. One of our priests used to say “Catholics are born with lemons in their mouths,” so he must have known he couldn’t try and appease every person while doing his job.
      He also was quite adept at short homilies which ended in making most congregants do a serious examination of conscience, but that’s another story.

      On the secular side, when we in the finance world would gather periodically for update meetings and next year rollouts, everyone donned suits, ties and nice clothing usually after fresh hairdos and haircuts. Now you sometimes wonder if they just came in from the gym; I guess the attitudes have really changed in the world, at least they have in the U.S.

    • Thank you, LJ, you made some excellent points. Many pastors/priests are indeed slow to correct (if at all) lay minister and deacons who stray from the liturgy and catechism to invoke their own agenda which causes confusion, frustration and damage to what the Church teaches.

  3. Beautifully written: this essay by Fr. Stravinskas.

    Exquisite: the poem “Ash Wednesday” by TS Eliot.

    Hauntingly Beautiful Words: “Remember Man that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.” (as compared to the banal “1970s memo format” option)

  4. Thanks, father, a lot to consider. Elliot is both hard and easy to understand much like Jesus. We can always go deeper and we never reach the bottom if we keep following them. They both challenge us to accept AND live the great paradoxes of truth: gaining by loosing, receiving by giving, becoming strong by being weak etc etc. Ash Wednesday is necessary because life in cyclic and we must return to where we were and start all over again. Buy, hopefully our cycle is not on a plane, but rather a spiral, spring like, ever ascending upward.

  5. Two Ash Wednesday stories
    A priest I knew some years ago said the same thing on Ash Wednesday – It’s good to see all of you. See you again next year.
    In one church, bowls of ashes were left in front of the altar. People came and put the cross on their foreheads themselves. DIY at its best.

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