Ash Wednesday, 2006

Ash Wednesday is one of the truly beautiful days in the Christian year--even though it is all about sin. In his Ash Wednesday audience, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the Christian's duty to "oppose evil with good, lies with the truth, and hatred with love." I wasn't there, of course, but the scene in Rome appeared to capture the beauty and solemnity of the day:

"The Holy Father presided at a traditional Roman observance of Ash Wednesday, leading a penitential procession from the church of St. Anselm to the basilica of Santa Sabina, for Mass and the distribution of ashes. In his homily he said that the Lenten season reminds Christians that spiritual life is a form of combat 'in which the weapons of prayer, fasting, and penance must be used.' The ascetic life of the penitential season should be followed 'with humility and patience, generosity and perseverance,' the Pontiff continued. By developing an interior attitude of humility and self-sacrifice, he said, Christians become 'witnesses and apostles of peace.' "

I hate it when preachers try to tart up some ancient idea by relating it to something modern, which can turn out to be trite if the preacher hasn't really thought it through.

At the risk of being trite, here goes: How is Ash Wednesday like a contemporary 12-step program? Both ask people to face the truth, or hit bottom. In the case of Ash Wednesday and Lent, the awful truth we must face is that we are all sinners. The Misere me, Deus in "A Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday" in the old Episcopal Book of Common Prayer captures the awesome nature of our sins:

"Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness; * according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences. Wash me throughly from my wickedness, * and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my faults, * and my sin is ever before me. Against thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; * that thou mightest be justified in thy saying, and clear when thou art judged. Behold, I was shapen in wickedness, * and in sin hath my mother conceived me. But lo, thou requirest truth in the inward parts, * and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly. "

But the amazing thing is that, if we allow ourselves to face our sins, we don't have to rectify the situation on our own. We ask God to "Turn thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned."

Ash Wednesday is about turning to God and allowing ourselves to be turned by Him. God bless, and have a nice Lent! [Just for the record, you weren't conceived in sin because sex is evil, but because we all inherit the taint of original sin--the one Christian dogma, some wag once observed, for which there is empirical evidence. In Lent, we try to build on nature and become better--with help.]