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.
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