Michael Sean Winters has a good piece on the NCR site today, titled "Why Catholics Need Ash Wednesday". Why Catholics need Ash Wednesday | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org)
The whole article is worth reading, but I will post some excerpts here, along with some personal reflections following:
"Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation, but it always draws larger crowds than any celebrations, save Christmas and Easter. All Saints' Day and the feast of the Immaculate Conception are holy days of obligation, and most parishes see more communicants than a typical weekday, but nothing like the standing-room-only crowds of Ash Wednesday."
"...Ash Wednesday is different. Those crowds are an expression of the sensus fidei, as popular piety almost always is. Catholics, at least until very recently, were raised with a bit of fire and brimstone, not of "Inherit the Wind" proportions, but enough to remind us that American notions of human progress lack biblical warrant. The people of God know we need to repent. We know, too, that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. And we sense that the transcendent God of the universe is very close to us, especially when we repent."
"...Poverty is why we come to Mass on Ash Wednesday. Poverty as self-emptying, which is the essential, inescapable quality of Jesus' redemptive power. We like to see Jesus as the liberator, the fighter against injustice, and he is, but that is not the dominant theme in the Gospels. The dominant and essential theme is Jesus' self-emptying. It is that which most characterized his salvific ministry and most caught the attention of his early followers. Poverty of spirit. Poverty as the opposite of, and antidote to, Pelagianism. Poverty as essential to the Christian vocation given us at baptism. "
"...Today, that smudge on our foreheads speaks to the sensus fidei as eloquently as any theological tract. It speaks to our yearning to grow closer to Jesus Christ and him crucified, mindful that he alone can conquer sin and death, that he has in fact already conquered sin and death. We Catholic Christians love Lent because we need it."
I think a big reason why we get the crowds on Ash Wednesday is that the ashes aren't something we have to *deserve*. Anyone can get them, you don't even have to be Catholic. You don't have to have any particular qualifications, just a remembrance that you are mortal. And that maybe you might need some help.
I sort of know what I'm going to do, or not do, for Lent, but no particular big picture plan. One of our priests suggested reading the book of Sirach, a chapter or two at a time. I'm going to do that, among other things, since I am not super familiar with that deuterocanonical Old Testament book, only the bits and pieces that come up in the Mass readings. Those are inspirational and often poetic.
I am also going to be attending a retreat this weekend at the Benedictine monastery and retreat house which is about 20 miles from where we live. The timing is coincidental with the beginning of Lent. The subject is contemplative prayer, so I am looking forward to it.
One of the pillars of Lent is said to be almsgiving. I think an almsgiving project for us is going to be aid to earthquake victims, maybe through Catholic Relief Services or Doctors Without Borders.
Good reflection by MSW! As it happens, I just published a reflection which is in a completely different vein :-).
ReplyDeleteI'm not able to be at the parish throughout the day this year, so I don't know whether the standing-room-only experience continues to prevail this year. Our parish Sunday mass attendance continues to recover very slowly, In recent weeks, we're above 60% of the pre-COVID numbers (which themselves are only about half of where we were in the 1990s when I joined the parish).
But we continue to offer masses and Ashes services throughout Ash Wednesday. Historically, a 4:30 pm service was the most crowded; the parking lot was so full it could be impossible to find a spot to park, and many years I had to park on the street in the nearby neighborhood. A lot of parents brought their children for ashes after school. It would be nice if that tradition continues. I'll be a deacon for the evening mass tonight. We usually get an ok but not jam-packed crowd.
Back when I worked in an office, people would see some Catholics walking around the office with ashes on their foreheads, and it would remind them they should get ashes, too. That kind of reinforcement doesn't happen as much, with so many workers working from home these days.
While a great number of people show up for ashes, very few people (single digits) go to private confession at least yearly.
ReplyDeleteGeneral confession and absolution without private confession might have become very popular if it had been combined with ashes.
I think the key is the sacramental sign of the ashes.
The general administration of the sacrament of the sick has become more and more popular because of the anointing with oil.
Communion has become popular because of the sacramental sign.
I think it is a mistake to try to get too technical and analytical and precise about these signs, e.g., exactly what we mean by Eucharist presence, or penance, or being sick.
Once we become too technical of these signs, e.g., transubstantiation, number and kinds of sins or what type and severity of illness we tend to lose people.
All of these are general markers of Catholic identity that bring people together rather than statements of belief and values that tend to divide people.
I was always surprised to see so many MSU students and student reporters with ashes when I was teaching. My class was at night, so I know the kiddies had to get up early for the imposition.
ReplyDeleteTerrible ice storm here today, so no ashes for us. However, I finished a re-read of "A Canticle for Liebowitz" this afternoon. So I'll take that as a pretty good homily on hubris, our fallen nature, and our need for God.
I read A Canticle for Leibowitz years ago. It had some memorable quotes. My favorite was "Bless me Father, I ate a Lizard". Bet not many priests have heard that! About like the one from Vampire Lestat; "It's been 200 years since my last confession." That did not end well!
DeleteI guess a sequel to A Canticle for Leibowitz has been published but I haven't read it yet. There was something like a thirty year gap between the original and the sequel.
DeleteIt might have been written earlier, but wasn't published until after Miller committed suicide. His death was a terrible irony after writing a book in which the abbot makes such an impassioned case against euthanasia. He clearly had many demons and fell short of his ideals, poor man. The sequel, fleshes out Part 2 of the original. I haven't read it, but reviewers said it didn't measure up to the original.
DeleteThe Ash Wednesday rush is an interesting phenomenon. It’s not seen only in the RCC either. The EC doesn’t lay on lots of guilt trips. They don’t make the Eucharist a reward for good behavior, nor do they reserve it only for official members of their own club. Anyone can go to the communion table, including non-Episcopalians. Yet, like the Catholics, they still get a huge turnout for Ash Wednesday. The three EC parishes in our community are all having multiple Ash Wednesday services. They are dispensing ashes at two ashes-only services during the day, , and all three are also giving ashes at special evening Eucharistic liturgies. One of the EC parishes was also having the Stations of the Cross at their noon ashes service and one of the parishes is also having drive through ashes. All three had pancake suppers last night as well. The Washington National Cathedral is following the evening Eucharist and Ashes with the opportunity to go to a priest for the sacrament of reconciliation if desired, with priests situated throughout the cathedral, including in the areas of the crypt, for those who wish to go to confession.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, I am envious- I would love to go to a contemplative retreat about now. Perhaps in the spring. I give automatic monthly donations to both CRS and Doctors Without Borders - excellent choices! Since DC is receiving immigrants from the border states, I may make a Lenten donation to one of the local groups helping them. Probably Catholic Charities.
A Time to pause and reflect. Everyone needs that. Rather than being an obligation, it’s really more of a gift to the people. Maybe that’s the secret of the popularity of Ash Wednesday.,
A similar phenomenon occurs on Yom Kippur in my community. It is the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year for Jews. It involves fasting, intense prayer, penance and sometimes confession. The services last for hours, most of the day. The local Jewish synagogues can’t handle the crowds, so they frequently rent school gyms to accommodate the people who never show up any other day of the year. It’s a school holiday here, so the schools make their gyms and all purpose rooms available.
DeleteSome interesting ideas that are more challenging than the norm on how to fast, give alms etc.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/lets-make-beatitudes-our-guide-lent
Anne, thanks - that was pretty challenging!
DeleteI can see the value in reimagining the traditions of fasting, prayer and almsgiving but I see little purpose in making oneself miserable by fasting from warmth, sleep, clean water, clothing and showers. All of them could be unhealthy.
DeleteMy own reimagining of Lent occurred back in 2011 in a post I did for PrayTell Blog
https://www.praytellblog.com/index.php/2011/03/28/television-time-use-lent-and-the-divine-office/
Basically I argued that we should fast from Television because it on consumes so much of our time:
During high school I gave up television for Lent (except for Bishop Sheen). That began a lifetime of low television viewing. In comparison to the average American male, if I had completely given up television between college and retirement I would have gained 4.5 years of waking time to do things other than watch television. That is the equivalent of more than six weeks of vacation per year.
I proposed that we spend some of that time in prayer specifically the Divine Office, e.g., the fifteen minutes that it takes to pray Morning or Evening Prayer.
In my original article I proposed the Divine Office because it is now easily available on-line so that it can fill gaps in our lives, which is one explanation of why TV absorbs so much of our time.
However more recently I have concluded that TV also give us something to share with other people not only in our own home but also at work, and community activities. The current online versions of the Divine Office now have music and visuals in addition to text. If parishes wish they could promote using the same on-line resources to build a prayer community throughout the week
Finally, since I noted that time diary studies reveal we really don't know where we spend our time, I suggested that people begin to keep them and apply the lessons that one of my professors in graduate school found from his studies of faculty members.
Those who were most productive in the classroom or in research had learned to use small amounts of time scattered throughout the day. It is an old psychology principal called distributed learning. You can learn more in four fifteen minutes periods than in one hour, or four one-hour periods that in one four- hour period. Our brains do a lot of work in the time between sessions. It also helps to do things like start before you are ready to write, e.g. by sketching for fifteen minutes then coming back. Also stop before you are finished. If you finish a paragraph and have an idea of what the next will be. Stop and come back to it later.
Time is our most precious asset, we each have about the same amount of it each day. Figuring out how to spend it is really important.
I gathered from the article that the exercises described were designed less to make anyone miserable than to build empathy among White suburbanites Catholics. The idea is that empathy might build solidarity with the poor that will somehow lead to action. I am not sure that artificial exercises in marginalization help people capture the dread and despair that real poor people deal with, but the idea wasn't to just suffer.
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