Ash Wednesday: Ashes and Holy Oil Mark the Spot

Ash Wednesday: Ashes and Holy Oil Mark the Spot

The Reverend Paul Allick, Church of the Advent

Today we begin our annual season of penitence.

The Catechism tells us that, “in penitence, we confess our

sins and make restitution where possible, with the intention

to amend our lives.” (Book of Common Prayer, p.857)

The tradition of ashes symbolizing repentance is, of course,

Biblical.

As Job ends his wrestling with God, he admits that he has

been arrogant, who is he to question God. Now Job

despises himself and repents in sackcloth and ashes.

(Job 42:3-6)

The Prophet Jeremiah warns the people that if they did not

turn back to God they would be sent into exile. He cries out

to Judah, “O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth and

roll in ashes.” (Jeremiah 6:26)

Later, during that very exile, Daniel receives a vision that the

desolation of Israel will last for seventy years. Daniel

responds to the vision, “Then I turned my face to the Lord

God, seeking him by prayer and supplication with fasting and

sackcloth and ashes. (Daniel 9:3)

Today these ashes remind us of our need for repentance

and of our mortality. How did we get here? How did we and

our ancestors get so far from God?

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It started in Eden with Adam and Eve. Is this story historically

accurate? I doubt it but it is one of the truest stories about

humanity that I have ever heard.

They lived in paradise and God delighted in them. He walked

with them and visited with them. He asked only one thing: do

not eat of the tree of knowledge. Do not go there. You do not

want to know.

But we humans cannot help ourselves. We are sorely drawn

into the many temptations which surround us even when it

means forfeiting our closeness to God.

The result of Adam and Eve’s defiance was sin and death.

Now they entered into competition with their maker to find

knowledge. Now they see that they are naked and

experience shame. Now there is a distance between them

and their Creator.

The Catechism teaches us that, “Sin is the seeking of our

own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our

relationship with God, with other people, and with all

creation.” (Book of Common Prayer, p.848)

This is what happened in the Garden. This is what continued

to happen to our Biblical ancestors. This is what has

continually happened to Mother Church. As communities and

individuals we continue to defy God’s will and instead we

seek our own. It distorts our relationships.

But we do not wallow in this situation. We do something

about it.

Yes, the ashes are a sign to us of our mortality and

penitence but they also remind us that it is by God’s gracious

gift of Jesus Christ that we are given everlasting life.

God does not desire the death of sinners but wants us to

repent and live.

The ashes remind us of how bad things can get and how

good God is to us. We are marked with the cross in ashes in

the same spot we were marked at our baptism. The sign of

the cross was put there with the Holy Oil and we were

marked as Christ’s own forever.

And it is the same spot where we are marked with Holy Oil in

the Sacrament of Unction for the sick.

Through God’s Word and the Sacraments there is always a

way home no matter how far we stray from God. As

Christians the cross is always on our foreheads: in the good

times and the bad. We are marked as sinners and saints all

at once.