Food For Thought

Feb 13, 2015

Ash Wednesday, though not a holy day of obligation, seems to enjoy an incredible amount of popularity.

“You’ll never see crowds packing the church for the feast of the Assumption ... or even on Sundays,” writes Marc Cardaronella, director of religious education at Exaltation of the Holy Cross Church in Champaign, Illinois, in a blog post.

Cardaronella says that while people will complain about confession or giving up meat (when it’s not Lent), they queue up for the opportunity to walk around with a black smudge “like a badge of honour.”

“What is it about Ash Wednesday?” he asks.

It’s a good question, considering that it takes us on the path toward a penitential season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving — a challenge for many of us.

Perhaps, Cardaronella says, Ash Wednesday reminds us that “we’re not all that.”

We need God’s help. “We need help with life and can’t do it alone,” he writes. “Most of the time we don’t turn to God for that help. But on this one day, Ash Wednesday, a lot of us recognize the need for God’s mercy and grace to get by. That is really the essence of Lent. A spiritual reset. Wipe the hard drive clean, reinstall the operating system and start fresh.”