Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent (a 40-day period of observance) which is an allusion to the separation of Jesus in the desert to fast and pray. During this time, he was tempted by the devil. The 40 days of fasting and prayer is also analogous to the 40 days during which Moses repented and fasted in response to the making of the Golden calf (Exo. 34:27–28). (Jews today follow 40 days of repenting in preparation for High Holy Days.)
The prophet Jeremiah called for repentance by saying: “O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes” (Jer 6:26). The prophet Daniel recounted pleading to God: “I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). Just before the New Testament period, the rebels fighting for Jewish independence, the Maccabees, prepared for battle using ashes: “That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes” (1 Maccabees 3:47; see also 4:39).
Most Western Christians attend special Ash Wednesday church services, at which they receive a cross of ash on their foreheads with the words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.) These words were spoken to Adam after he had sinned Gen.3.19, and they remind worshippers of their sinfulness and mortality and of their need to repent. Ash Wednesday derives its name from this practice which was introduced in the West by Pope Gregory 540-604. The ashes are prepared by burning palm crosses from the previous year’s Palm Sunday.
Ever since the Council of Nicaea 325 a period of fasting for forty days in advance of Easter has been observed by all historic denominations of the Church. Great Lent in the East begins on ‘clean Monday’ the day after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise has been observed. The forms of fasting and repentance are many and varied in the West but the East is more unified in its practice: no meat, fish, dairy, wine, or oil are consumed. The fast is relieved on Sundays when wine and oil are permitted and on March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation, fish is also allowed. The purpose of this discipline is the control of ‘earthly passions.’ Every morning and evening in addition to other regular prayers the prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian is said :
“O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen.”
One of the most intensely introspective studies of Ash Wednesday is the poem of that name by the poet T. S. Eliot. In many cathedrals and churches choirs will sing the beautiful setting of the Misère (Psalm 51) by Gregorio Allegri from the service called Tenebrae (from light to darkness). Eastern Christians wish each other, “A Good Lent”.
Christopher Jobson
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Feature Image: 10289341.jpg, freepik.com, P.D.