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Mike's Ash Wednesday 2/19/2012 2:27:04 PM
Many people don’t know what the significance of Ash Wednesday is; and that includes me. Perhaps, I had known about it in my earlier time but in its most recent resurrection, I had forgotten what it truly signifies. I know that it reminds me that we all come from dust and unto dust we must all return. But how it originated and when it originated was lost in my consciousness.
One night, I was talking to PDX Mike about that catholic practice and for all the knowledge he knew about Catholicism, he started out not knowing what Ash Wednesday was all about. PDX Mike went to catholic schools even though he was a Presbyterian. And because he was one, I supposed the he should know something about the practice. Apparently, not. Granted that, he told me the story about his initiation into the tradition of Ash Wednesday.
He has a teacher in high school who he says was really interesting and very nice, Fr. Becker. He was sitting in class when Fr. Becker went into the classroom with the sign of the cross etched on his forehead with crushed charcoal. He told Fr. Becker that he has dirt on his forehead. And Fr. Becker replied that it was not dirt but rather a sign to acknowledge that we all come from dust and unto dust we all shall return. Mike had this incredulous look on his face for it was the first time he heard about it. Thus, it was Mike’s initiation into Ash Wednesday.
And then Mike recalled that it is 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. He asked me why. I said that 40 days was the number of days that Christ stayed on this earth before he ascended into heaven. If I can recall, Christ also prayed in the dessert for 40 days. Forty days has a lot of significance. I can recall my dad when he died that he made his presence felt but after the 40 days was up, I didn’t feel his presence any more near me.
It was wise to assume that although over one billion people are Christian and several hundred millions are Catholics (maybe, more), many don’t know the significance of Ash Wednesday. It is to the Catholic that we need to educate the uninitiated to tell them about it (if they are interested enough.)
Yes, I do believe in Ash Wednesday, as well as Heaven and Hell. I believe in resurrection and that one’s fate is tied in with one’s faith. When the world puts us down because of mundane practices of hierarchy and the sinful act of pedophilia, I still believe in the faith. For mundane practices where the human wants become the norm, we must learn to delineate what is human and what is spiritual.
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