Why all the Ashes?

I got this in an e-mail and thought it would be great to share today, Ash Wednesday.

Father Shriver is not one to
keep his opinions to himself and I especially recall
his thoughts about ashes. "You know what I'd do
if I were the rector of a church?" he asked our class.
"You know what I'd do? I'll tell you what I'd do. At
the end of the Ash Wednesday liturgy, I'd be at the
back door with a big washrag. As people left the
church, I'd wipe the ashes off their forehead and
remind them of the words of our Lord, "Beware of
practicing your piety before men in order to be seen
by them" (Matthew 6:1).

Father Shriver had no time for religious pretence or
hollow religiosity. His sentiments are profoundly
biblical, echoing the preaching of the prophets and
the teaching of our Lord. Given this strong criticism
of outward piety and given that at Saint Mary's we
will offer ashes all day on March 1, we might well
ask ourselves, "Why all the ashes?

Because ashes are a sign, they are a reminder, and
ashes are an invitation.

Archaeologists tell us that the people of Israel were
not alone in using ashes in rituals of purification. Ashes
appear in Phoenician burial art and Arabic expressions.
Ashes were a sign of grief, mourning, humiliation and
penitence. When Job loses everything, he sits among the
ashes. Cursed and overrun by enemies, the Psalmist
"eats ashes like bread, and mingles tears with drink."
Ashes are what are left after destruction. After chaos
or catastrophe, ashes are what remain.

Ashes also remind us of a common origin. The second
chapter of Genesis tells of how we were created from
the dust of the ground. Though we may spend our lives
trying to distinguish ourselves from others, running after
success and trying to feel different from others, the dust
and ashes remind us that we are all made of the same
stuff. We are reminded not only of our beginning but also
of our end. On the First Day of Lent, ashes are imposed
with the words, "Remember that you are dust, and to
dust you shall return." Those words apply to us all.

While ashes may signify and remind, they also invite.
They invite us to repentance. They invite us to turn again
to God and to receive new life.Isaiah brings glad tidings
to the people of Israel, "to give them a garland instead of
ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning." Ashes are
not the end but are just the beginning. They begin a season
that moves us through silence and longing into a season
of joy and resurrection.

Sunday, February 26 is the Last Sunday after the Epiphany.
The music will be celebrative and the mood joyous. The
alleluias will echo for the next few days, until we reach
the quiet of Ash Wednesday.

On that day, may the ashes we receive be a sign of our
humility and our penitence. May they remind us of our
individual sins and the complexity of corporate sin. But
more than anything, may the ashes invite us into God's
presence, into God's love and into God's gift of new life.

Article from: Angelus On Line Newsletter, St Mary the
Virgin Episcopal Church, New York
by Father John Beddingfield