Ash Wednesday – Wednesday Blog by Seán Thomas Kane
In past years when I’ve written columns and devotionals around this time of year recognizing the beginning of Lent, they’ve been on some levels joking (I once referred to this season as the past tense of to lend) while on others they’ve been overly serious and solemn. There’s certainly room for both angles. This year, I feel a little less strongly moved by the whole experience, yes, I know we’re approaching a time of great meaning and purpose, yet in my mind that’s overwhelmed by the onset of what hopefully will be better Spring weather this week.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that the passing of the seasons impresses me differently than it used to. When I was first learning the names of the months and seasons in school, I noticed the changes quite profoundly. The first of each month was a moment of regard. Today though, month by month passes as one after another in a parade ever blending with its compatriots into one great cyclical mass of the year. I notice today more so the changing of the weather than I do the months or even the seasons. I notice the waves of warm air coming out of the southwest fighting against the cold air pushing down from the northwest. I notice now how each passing rain and snow leads either towards the warmth of summer or the cold of winter. For me the year is far more a day-by-day affair now than anything else.
So, where does that leave the liturgical year, the cycles around which my faith orbits? Honestly, I’m not sure. Perhaps because I had the opportunity to attend Catholic schools for much of my life the Catholic feast days and holidays stood out to me more at one time than they do now. The highest holy days, the Easter Triduum, Christmas, and of course the Irish feast days of Saints Patrick, Brigid, and Columcille stand out the most for me today, days when I can imagine my present moment lining up neatly with memories of my past and of the generations who came before me.
If Ash Wednesday has any potency for me today it’s in its reminder that we’re all mortal, and yes, at some point our lives are going to end. It’s a reminder of our limits, in body if possibly not in mind. I’ll go to Mass and get the ashes on my forehead as I’ve done for as long as I can remember, and yes, I’ll do the Catholic fasting (one large meal with two small meals, no meat), and I’ll likely be a bit grumpy about the whole affair. Ash Wednesday is a reminder of our lives on this Pale Blue Dot, to blend Carl Sagan’s humanism with Catholic theology. We’re all a part of this our home planet, forever tied to it, no matter how far we and our descendants might travel from its surface.A holy day like Ash Wednesday is a reminder of our worldliness, and how that world which we cherish and which we have helped build is as fragile, as mortal as we are. The ashes of the palm branches from last year’s Palm Sunday are from this same world that we are. It’s an honesty that can’t be beat or diluted, we are who we are. That’s what I’ve got this week.
Wednesday Blog by Seán Thomas Kane 