Deuteronomy 26:4-10 / Romans 10:8-13 / Luke 4:1-13
The Catholic Church has a Ritual Book of Blessings and in it are the prayers of blessings for people and for things.
So the prayers of blessings for people include birthday blessings, wedding anniversary blessings, blessing of expectant parents, blessing of children and adults in the various situations of life.
And then there are blessings for things from the holy to the ordinary. So there are blessings for chalice and paten, ciborium, vestments, cross, statues, bells, right down to water, oil, salt and candles.
And then come those extra-ordinary blessings which may happen only once a year, like blessing of palm branches which happens on Palm Sunday.
Last Wednesday, which was Ash Wed, we had one of those extra-ordinary blessing, which is the blessing of ashes, and the ashes are obtained by burning the palm branches from last year’s Palm Sunday. That is why we requested for the return of the palm branches.
Now the prayer for blessing of the ashes goes like this:
O God, who desire not the death of sinners, but their conversion. Mercifully hear our prayers and in your kindness be pleased to bless + these ashes, which we intend to receive upon our heads, that we, who acknowledge we are but ashes and shall return to dust, may through a steadfast observance of Lent, gain pardon for sins and newness of life after the likeness of your Risen Son.
So as we are marked with the blessed ashes, we are reminded that we are dust, we ask for forgiveness of our sins, we ask for the grace to be faithful, for God does not want us to perish but to have life in the Risen Christ.
And with the ashes marked on our foreheads on Ash Wed, we begin the season of Lent, the 40 days of Lent, which is focused on repentance and conversion.
But it is only on Ash Wed that we are marked with ashes and not for 40 days. And even for those of us who are marked with ashes on Ash Wed, as we leave after Mass, some would want to wipe off the ashes on their foreheads as quickly as possible.
Although it would be a good sign of witnessing to our faith, we are not too sure about what others might think of it. Especially after the evening Mass of Ash Wed, when we walk around with those ashes in the form of a cross on our foreheads, others might not want to take the lift with us, or that they might just want to avoid us.
And those ashes can be quite messy, they are rough, they can cause an irritation for those who have sensitive skin. In short, there is nothing really nice about those ashes.
But it was just for one day, and even then not for the whole day, nor for 40 days.
But in the Old Testament, as a sign of repentance, those rough, messy ashes are put on the head and face, besides also wearing sack-cloth.
So, yes, ashes are only for Ash Wed. But it is also a start to the 40 days of Lent. There is no need to put on ashes for 40 days, but those ashes should also make us reflect and meditate about those 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert. So it is like from ashes to Jesus.
And on this 1st Sunday of Lent, we hear once again the account of Jesus in His 40 days in the desert, and being tempted by the devil.
The devil tempted Jesus with only three temptations. If He were the Son of God, then He could turn the stones into bread to feed His hunger. He would be safe, even if He were to jump off the parapet of the Temple. And He could have all the earthly power and glory if He just bowed down to the devil.
These three temptations could be just simply put like this – The devil tempted Jesus with what He would want. And yet in overcoming the temptations, Jesus showed us what we really need. So essentially, it is a want versus a need.
The devil’s temptation is to confuse us between a want and a need. Well, “want” has four letters, and so is “need”.
And it is in those areas of our life that we must see the similarities as well as the differences.
“Love” has four letters, and so has “hate”. We want to love those who love us and hate those who are against us. Yet Jesus tells us that it is in loving our enemies that we will know the greatness of the capacity of love that God has created in our hearts.
And talking about “enemies”, that word has seven letters, and so has “friends”. We want friends and we don’t need enemies. But often it is our so-called friends who will hurt us and betray us.
We want God to give us success and we blame God when we fail. “Success” and “failure” has the same number of words. Success can get into our heads and make us proud, but failure will always keep us humble and dependent on God.
So in many areas of our life, there seem to be similarities as well as differences. A want may seem like a need. But a want is only for ourselves, and a need is essentially for us to turn back to God and trust in Him.
So let us remember those ashes on Ash Wed, and let us follow Jesus into the 40 days of Lent. May we see that we will always be tempted on what we want, but Jesus will help us to know what we truly need.
May we rise from ashes, and rise to trust in Jesus.