It’s a peculiar fact which puzzles Catholics and other Christians throughout the world that Ash Wednesday could likely be regarded as one of the highest attended masses throughout the entire year, with attendance likely outnumbering even Easter Sunday which Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent are meant to lead to. Upon walking into a Catholic Church on this day, one could ask the question, “Is today a holy day of obligation?” to which the answer would be, “No.” This means that, despite there being no obligation upon the Catholic faithful to attend mass on this day, people are showing up in droves. For some, this day could mark the return to regular mass attendance. For others, they may never be seen again until next year. This observation leaves many priests and lay faithful scratching their heads asking, “What gives?”
Depending on who you ask, there are a couple of answers. Some are cynical and argue that the reason people come on Ash Wednesday is because you “get” something; the ashes. To the cynic, people come to get their ashes to wear around all day long to show off. They argue that in this narcissistic culture in which we live, people love nothing more than a reason to show off. Therefore, the receiving of ashes on one’s forehead to wear around all day is a way to proclaim to the world, “Look at me, I went to church today.” One can sympathize with this theory a bit, especially looking at the issue of pride as a result of our human frailty. However, I would argue that this argument doesn’t apply to our current atmosphere. Sure, maybe sixty or seventy years ago when church attendance was the norm of most Americans, people would have taken pride in the fact that they got up early to make it to church before work or school. However, in our increasingly secular “post Christian” culture, wearing ashes as one goes about their day is likely to earn ridicule from coworkers, colleagues, and fellow citizens. This is especially true with the increasingly militaristic atheists and leftists who want to attack any sign of the sacred within society. I would argue that the likely correct answer isn’t as cynical as this. Instead, I think the real reason people are coming is because of what the day truly represents; sorrow for sin and repentance. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the yearly forty day (forty-six counting the Sundays) period when the universal Church commemorates Christ’s forty days in the desert and meditates upon his suffering leading up to his crucifixion. Especially to the Catholic, this day marks the beginning of what for many is a period of personal spiritual transformation where the faithful take on various sacrifices such as additional prayers or giving up something one likes for the period. Some even seek to give up particular habits to rid them from their lives for good. It is a period when we are especially called to look inside ourselves and seek to remove sin and die to ourselves so we may rise with Christ on Easter Sunday to come and, hopefully, to rise with him to eternal life on the last day. Of course, this isn’t a message that we should only hear during a specific forty day period every year. The three pillars of Lent (prayer, penance, and almsgiving) need to be part of our lives all year. The fact is that, in probably most Catholic parishes, this is the only day of the year in which the message of repentance is communicated to them. At most masses throughout the rest of the year, the message being preached to people is that of the “Gospel of niceness” in which Jesus is portrayed as being a nice guy who wants us to be peaceful and nice to each other. The fact is, however, that this “Gospel of nice” is a false depiction of the message of Our Lord and ignores that the majority of references about Hell in the Bible, and the idea of people actually ending up there, come from the mouth of Christ himself. To the members of the Church of Nice, Heaven is essentially guaranteed as long as we are nice to each other. In fact, they may be hard pressed to even accept that Hell exists. If they do, they’re likely to think that nobody actually goes there. In this, Gospel of Christ as taught by the Catholic Church for millennia is continuously being watered down and the spiritual life being made easier and more comfortable. What has happened to the people? They’ve quit coming, of course. However, Ash Wednesday is necessarily different. Of course, many priests will likely preach the same message they preach the rest of the year. Even Pope Francis offered Lenten “penances” resembling the Church of Nice in his list two years ago with practices such as fasting “from hurting words” or “pessimism.” These things, while not bad things to get rid of, kind of miss the point. Despite whatever bad and feel-good preaching to which one is subject, the fact is that as one goes up to receive their ashes, they are still faced with the words “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” or “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” For many, this is probably the only time of the year in which the authentic message of Christ will be preached to them. That is why they are packing the churches on this day. The trust is that we humans were made to be in right relationship with God, it is the very purpose of our creation. Whether one consciously knows it or not and despite our inherent sinfulness, the soul actually wants to toss aside sin and cling to Christ. The soul wants to be corrected and reminded of the continual need of sorrow for sin and repentance. The soul wants to hear that suffering isn’t without purpose because Christ himself said “Take up your cross and follow me.” The soul doesn’t want Hell and eternal death. The soul wants Heaven and eternal life with its Creator and penance, in union with faith in Christ, is the way to get there. Ash Wednesday is yet another powerful reminder that what people really want is the truth of the faith, no matter how uncomfortable it is. Of course, the Church doesn’t just do what people “want” to get them in the door. That has been tried and, well, it hasn’t worked. However, this wanting stems from the deepest desire of the soul of each person to be reunited with God. This is the reason the Church exists, to lead people to eternal salvation with God. When he commissioned his disciples, Christ said to them, “Go out all over the world and preach the gospel to the whole of creation; he who believes and is baptized will be saved; he who refuses belief will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16). Christ did command to all to love one another by feeding the hungry, healing the sick, etc. However, the crux of his message was always the salvation of souls and the building up of the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, he established the Church, the heavenly Kingdom’s earthly presence, to preach the message of salvation and lead souls to Heaven. Sadly, so many deacons, priests, and bishops seem to have forgotten this mission and have failed to preach accordingly. However, we can take hope in the reminder which this day provides that, despite the apparent failure to provide it, throngs of people still come looking for the authentic Gospel represented in the simple sign of ashes being placed upon our forehead. Artwork: "Ash Wednesday" by Julian Falat
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The day is upon us once again. A day full of roses, chocolate, lavish dinners, romance, and some Cupid guy who shoots people with arrows. I am talking, of course, about Valentine's Day. Every year on this day, couples will celebrate their love of one another through things like giving gifts or going out to a special dinner. One can't walk into a supermarket without seeing a section all plastered in pink boasting anything you could possibly need in the shape of a heart. It is yet another holiday which radical American consumerism has hijacked for the sake of making a profit. In addition, it has one key thing in common with many other holidays which have experienced this same fate; it is actually a Catholic holiday. Everyone knows Christmas and Easter come from a Catholic origin and Saint Patrick's day too (it has "Saint" in the name so it's not hard to figure out). However, I think there is a large number of people, maybe even Catholics since it was removed from the liturgical calendar after Vatican II, who don't know that Valentine's Day is actually "Saint Valentine's Day." Not a lot is known about Saint Valentine and, in fact, he could represent two different people. However, it is agreed that he was Roman martyr from the third century who was buried north of Rome. In fact, it was on this day, the fourteenth of February, that he was martyred. There are two main stories about him, leading people to the aforementioned belief that he may have been two people: The first holds that he was a bishop who was sent to prison and later executed for trying to convert people to Christianity. The other holds that he was arrested and sent to prison for aiding persecuted Christians and also for illegally presiding over Christian weddings. This second thread may be, in part, how his feast has come to be associated with romantic love. I do not, however, wish to go deeply into the various stories concerning Valentine since you can easily search for them online. If you wish to learn more about who he may have been, you can go to this website where I found my information. However, I wish to give a little commentary on what meaning we can draw from this day, besides romance, in our current age. As I said earlier, what we do know about Valentine is that he was a martyr, meaning he was killed as a result of his Christian faith. I think the two main stories about him have particular significance in our modern era. As noted above, the first story says he was killed for trying to convert people to the faith. One needs not look far to see that we have, again, entered into an era where working to evangelize and convert others is seen as impolite if not outright offensive. The secular world tells us that everybody has their own truth and that we have no right to impose "our truth" upon others. Even further, there are even some in the hierarchy of the Church who at least seem to criticize good and authentic evangelization, condemning it a "proselytism." The idea of moral and theological relativism continues to spread to the point that it seems we live in an age where each person lives his or her own reality. Saint Valentine reminds us that we need to hold on to and fight for the truth, no matter the cost. In the United States, we have relative comfort in professing and sharing the Christian faith. Sure, sharing our faith may earn us a weird reaction or even cost us friends, but it's unlikely that we will die because of it. However, we can look east to the underground church in China being persecuted by the secular communist regime or the Christians being slaughtered by radical Islam for a reminder that, for many, Saint Valentine's reality is their reality. Then we have the story which says that Valentine was imprisoned and killed, at least in part, for performing illegal Christian marriages. For many Americans, this story thread may hit a little closer to home. Sister Lucia, one of the witnesses of Mary's apparitions at Fatima stated that the final battle against Satan would be for marriage and family. We see this battle being waged before our very own eyes where unnatural unions are now viewed as the norm to the point that a former presidential hopeful threatened to remove tax exempt status from churches who do not accept gay "marriage." It is no longer enough for the secularists that their desired lifestyles have been enshrined into national law. They now want everyone who even disagrees with their point of view punished because to disagree with them is hateful. Instead, the argue, we need to love each other. The sane Christian agrees that we are called to love one another. Christ himself told us to do so. However, there is a major difference, I would argue, which lies in what society's ever-changing definition of love and what Christianity has always defined as love. The secularists, and sadly many "Christians," seem to equate love with things like niceness and acceptance. To them, the loving reaction to someone living in sin is accepting them, giving them a pat on the back, and letting them stay where they are. To proclaim the truth to someone and call them out of their sin, that is hate. However, Christianity has taught that the holiest and truest form of love is the love which involves sacrifice. This love is, of course, modeled most perfectly in the life of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus loved sinners, of course, but he loved them too much and knew the value of their souls to leave them there. It was love, then, that compelled him to say, "Go, and sin no more." It was love for his Father which compelled him to enter into the temple, the house of worship, and cast out the money changers and vendors with a whip and turn over their tables because they had defaced the house of the Lord. It was love which compelled Jesus to ascend the cross and give himself, in innocence, for the salvation of all the guilty who would accept him. A life modeled on Christ is the true love. This love, then, leads one to forsake any care for how they are viewed by the world so they may be a voice of truth among confusion and error. This love leads a husband to give himself completely for his wife and children. Most perfectly, this love leads the martyrs to their glorious deaths where they die in and for Christ, just as he died for them. Therefore, let us cast aside the falsity which the world wants us to believe is love. Instead, let us look to the example of Saint Valentine as a reminder to truly love. To be better husbands, wives, parents, children, relatives, friends, and, most importantly, disciples. Let us strive to die to ourselves every day for the love of God and others by rejecting sin, especially pride and impurity, and our own desires in our lives. Instead, let us accept the desire of Christ, that we take up our cross and follow him. In addition, let us not be too afraid of being labeled as hateful for calling others to do the same. Yes, the way of true love is difficult, but it is this love which leads to true blessedness, for "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). Sancte Valentine, ora pro nobis. Artwork: Saint Valentine Baptizing Saint Lucilla by Jacopo Bassano
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About MeAn Iowa-raised convert to Catholicism seeking to live my life entirely for Jesus and His Church with all the saints. Archives
August 2021
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