Ash Wednesday 2012

Ash Wednesday is one of those quintessentially Catholic celebrations. Whether they regular members of the worshipping community, or more culturally Catholic, people who identify themselves as Catholic gather to celebrate this day which marks the beginning of our observance of the Season of Lent. And you can easily identify them – they’re the ones who wander the streets with a smudge on their foreheads.

I would like to suggest, however, that the true significance of today, of this Ash Wednesday – and indeed of Lent itself – will not be found in today or in the Season of Lent, but rather in what we will celebrate at the end of these next six weeks. This Season of Lent will find its true significance we we gather, as the People of God, to celebrate the great Feast of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. The full significance of Ash Wednesday, and the next forty days, exists only when we see it in relationship to Easter.

The Season of Lent while a penitential season where we are called to prayer, almsgiving and self-denial is also, and more properly, a season of purification and preparation. For those seeking to become part of our faith community through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, Lent is the final time of preparation and purification before entering the waters of baptism on Easter night. For those of us who are already members of the Christian family, these six weeks are also a time which we can take advantage of each and every year to ensure that we are prepared for the celebration of Easter.

If we focus on Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent, embracing the Lenten discipline as we are called to do, but without recognising what we are preparing for – the celebration of Easter – then we have, I would suggest, missed the point. The purposed of our Lenten discipline is not found in those activities themselves, but in what they are preparing us for. We are called to journey through the Season of Lent with one eye firmly fixed on what comes at the end of this season: the celebration of Christ’s Death and Resurrection, when we, the redeemed People of God, are able to stand together on Easter Day and give glory to God.