Ash Wednesday
Today is Shrove Tuesday, and we plan to eat pancakes for dinner.
Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period preceding Easter. (Don't count the five Sundays, which are considered "little celebrations" of the resurrection.) It is a time for spiritual renewal, fasting, and repentance. Ashes, symbolic of penance and humanity's creation from dust, are placed on the forehead. In some traditions, the ashes are made from the palms used for Palm Sunday the previous year, christened with water sprinkled with olive oil, and scented with incense. The practice of receiving ashes on the forehead on the first day of Lent dates back to the fifth-century church.
T. S. Eliot, who won the Nobel prize for literature, wrote a poem titled "Ash-Wednesday," based loosely on Dante's Purgatorio, following his conversion. In fact, it was his first long post-conversion piece.
Traditionally Christ-followers read psalms of penitence on Ash Wednesday. Here is an excerpt from the psalm King David wrote after committing adultery/murder (Psalm 51):
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love!
Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts!
Wash away my wrongdoing!
Cleanse me of my sin!
For I am aware of my rebellious acts;
I am forever conscious of my sin.
Against you – you above all – I have sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
So you are just when you confront me;
you are right when you condemn me.
Look, I was guilty of sin from birth,
a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.
Look, you desire integrity in the inner man;
you want me to possess wisdom.
Sprinkle me with water and I will be pure;
wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven!
May the bones you crushed rejoice!
Hide your face from my sins!
Wipe away all my guilt!
Create for me a pure heart, O God!
Renew a resolute spirit within me!
Do not reject me!
Do not take your Holy Spirit away from me!
Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance!
Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey!
Then I will teach rebels your merciful ways,
and sinners will turn to you.
Rescue me from the guilt of murder, O God, the God who delivers me!
Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance.
O Lord, give me the words!
Then my mouth will praise you.
Certainly you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it;
you do not desire a burnt sacrifice.
The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit –
O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject.
Remember, David was a shepherd boy before becoming king. Shepherds taught straying sheep to stay close by breaking their legs and then carrying the lame sheep on their shoulders. That is probably what David has in mind when he speaks to God of "the bones you crushed."
For self-reflection: Do you give away to others the same degree of grace that you yourself hope to receive?