(Listen to this homily here).
I learned something new this week. I’m just curious—do you know where we get the ashes for our
Ash Wednesday service? I had a
vague notions that palms were burned to make the ashes but I had always they
were ordered in from somewhere else.
Yesterday
students and parishioners gathered in our parking lot to burn the blessed palms
from last year. After the fire went
out and things cooled off, the ashes were put in a strainer and then mashed to
get the ashes we have before us.
The
palms and ashes have stood out to me as we begin Lent. They act as bookends to this
season. Today we will be signed
with ashes in the shape of a cross and reminded, “You are dust and to dust you
shall return.” In about six weeks,
we will receive palms to commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. These two physical symbols—ashes and
palms—frame the Lenten season.
But
think of these symbols in another way—the palms and ashes frame the rest of the
year. Start with the palms we
receive on Palm Sunday—they are fresh, green and supple. As the year goes on they begin to dry
out, decay and become brittle.
Eventually they are burned to form the ashes.
That’s
a lot like our own life, isn’t it?
We begin with youthfulness and zeal. As time goes on our very bodies get sore, tired, brittle and
sick. At the end, every one will
die. The palms are a great
metaphor for our own life on earth.
Lent
is a time to die to ourselves.
This is why we give something up, and focus on our prayer, fasting and
almsgiving. The point is to enter
into the great mystery of our faith—the Paschal Mystery—in which dying leads to
rising. Jesus’ death led to life
for all. Our own sacrifices have
the potential to give life to others.
I
pray you have a blessed season of Lent and that by dying to yourself you may
provide much life.
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