Joel 2:12-18 / 2 Cor 5:20 - 6:2 / Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. As the name implies, ashes will be blessed and used in today's Mass and later it will be marked on our foreheads.
The ashes are made from the palm branches that were blessed on Palm Sunday of the previous year.
We may think that the Church is pretty good at recycling otherwise we may not know what to do with the blessed palm branches.
Recycling is a good practice and we should always be mindful of the bountiful gifts God has given us in His Creation.
However, there is a deeper and more spiritual reason behind this old Catholic tradition of using ashes made from the palm leaves blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year.
Palm Sunday is the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt and the people welcomed him by waving palm leaves and laying them on the ground.
The Mass on Palm Sunday starts with the liturgy of palms and the blessing of palms. These palms reflect the joy of the people at Jesus’ triumphant entry and also our joy in Jesus, our Saviour.
In the Gospel, the people’s joy soon turned into sorrow when Jesus died at the cross to save them from their sins. Converting the palms into ashes is thus a reminder that crucifixion and death followed soon after.
Ashes were used in ancient times to express grief. The gesture of sprinkling ashes on the forehead was also used to express sorrow for sins and faults.
The imposition of ashes is a mark of penitence, and using the palm branches is also a reminder that the same people who cried "Hosanna" would later be baying "Crucify him!"
The imposition of ashes is also a mark of our own penitence for our own sins. May we begin the season of Lent in the spirit of fasting, alms-giving and prayer and offer it with love to the Lord.