Ash Wednesday.

—The Wednesday after Quinquagesima Sunday, which

is the first day of the Lenten fast. The name dies cinerum (day of ashes)
which it bears in the Roman Missal is found in the earliest existing copies
of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth
century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are
exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the
priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks upon the
forehead—or in the case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure—of each
the sign of the cross, saying the words: “Remember man that thou art dust
and unto dust thou shalt return.” The ashes used in this ceremony are made
by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the
previous year. In the blessing of the ashes four prayers are used, all of
them ancient, and the ashes are sprinkled with holy water and fumigated
with incense. The celebrant himself, be he bishop or cardinal, receives,
either standing or seated, the ashes from some other priest, usually the
highest in dignity of those present. In earlier ages a penitential procession
often followed the rite of the distribution of the ashes, but this is not now
prescribed.

There can be no doubt that the custom of distributing the ashes to all the
faithful arose from a devotional imitation of the practice observed in the
case of public penitents. But this devotional usage, the reception of a
sacramental which is full of the symbolism of penance (cf. the cor
contritum quasi cans of the “Dies Inn”) is of earlier date than was formerly
supposed. It is mentioned as of general observance for both clerics and
faithful in the Synod of Beneventum, 1091 (Mansi, XX, 739), but nearly a
hundred years earlier than this the Anglo-Saxon homilist Aelfric assumes
that it applies to all classes of men. “We read”, he says, “in the books both
in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins
bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth.
Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes
upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the
Lenten fast.” And then he enforces this recommendation by the terrible
example of a man who refused to go to church for the ashes on Ash
Wednesday and who a few days after was accidentally killed in a boar hunt
(Aelfric, “Lives of Saints”, ed. Skeat, I, 262-266). It is possible that the
notion of penance which was suggested by the rite of Ash Wednesday was
reinforced by the figurative exclusion from the sacred mysteries
symbolized by the hanging of the Lenten veil before the sanctuary. But on
this and the practice of beginning the fast on Ash Wednesday see Lent.

HERBERT THURSTON

Did Jesus Condemn Wearing Ashes on

Ash Wednesday?

MICHELLE ARNOLD

Every year toward the start of Lent, questions about the Catholic
observance of Lent arise. “How long is Lent?” “Can I have what I gave up
for Lent on Sunday?” “Am I allowed to eat bacon bits on my salad during
Lent?” One of the most common questions I’ve come across is “But how
can we wear ashes on Ash Wednesday when Jesus condemned it?”

Actually, what Jesus said on the matter, which is included in the Gospel
reading for Ash Wednesday, is this:

When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their
appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to
you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head
and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to
your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will
repay you (Matt. 6:16-18).

How does this square with putting ashes on our foreheads for Ash
Wednesday?

First of all, Jesus’ primary concern is hypocrisy. What he is condemning

are acts undertaken to show off one’s personal piety. If the intention in
doing an otherwise good act of mortification is to draw public attention to
oneself, then, Jesus says, the attention received from the public is the only
reward that person will receive, rather than the heavenly reward for which
we are searching.

It is also noteworthy that Jesus says these hypocrites are “neglect[ing] their
appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting.” Perhaps those
Jesus was condemning were not actually fasting but creating a surface
impression so as to win the praise of others for their presumed piety. God,
who sees the heart, knows whether or not they were really fasting.
Hypocrisy, after all, is creating an appearance that is at odds with reality.

For Catholics, though, Ash Wednesday is not about creating a show of

one’s piety or drawing attention to one’s fasting. The wearing of ashes is a
penance that Catholics around the world are invited to enter into as part of
a community. In the United States, the custom is to mark foreheads with an
ashen cross. In many places around the world, though, Catholics have
ashes sprinkled over the crown of the head, which is more hidden from
public view and has biblical precedent (1 Macc. 3:47).

1 Macc. 3:47 = Revised Standard Version

They fasted that day, put on sackcloth and sprinkled ashes on their heads, and
rent their clothes.

Of course, there can be a danger of hypocrisy when the ashes are sought
for their outward value alone and do not act as a sign of a repentant heart.
Although exceptions are made for the homebound, many parishes now
limit distribution of blessed ashes to the Masses offered on Ash
Wednesday so as to discourage those who want merely to wear the ashes
but not otherwise participate in the holiness of the day. While participation
in a Mass is not a requirement for receiving blessed ashes, it does make
sense to ask those who want the ashes if they are prepared to do that which
the ashes symbolize and amend their lives.

The other major penitential activity of Ash Wednesday is to fast. This is

also intended as a means to join into the communal penance of Catholics
around the world. Sometimes concerns are raised that the fasting required
of Latin Catholics on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday is too lenient. The
age requirement is from 18 to 59. It’s not a complete fast from food and
drink but a reduced intake to one full meal and two small meals. The
abstinence from meat is not absolute, but allows for exceptions, such
as soups that contain bits of meat.

There is certainly room for Latin Catholics to wish that the disciplines in
this area were stricter, as they are for Catholics in the Eastern churches.
But that leniency does not restrict anyone capable to holding himself to a
stricter fasting and abstinence standard from doing so, and it allows those
who need the leniency (e.g., those with medical conditions, those who live
in areas with limited dietary choices) to participate in the communal
penance of the day. The Church legislates for Catholics around the
world and in doing so seeks to create disciplines that allow for penance but
do not create an undue burden on members of the faithful in difficult
circumstances.

This communal aspect to the Church’s days of penance is, I think, best
captured by the prophet Joel, in the Old Testament reading for Ash
Wednesday:

Blow the trumpet in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an assembly, gather the
people, notify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children
and the infants at the breast. . . . Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord,
weep, and say, “Spare, O Lord, your people, and make not your heritage a
reproach” (Joel 2:15–17).
This penance on Ash Wednesday, and throughout Lent, is meant to prepare
us for Easter. It is intended to remind us that our destiny is to die and rise
again in Christ. In one of his homilies for Ash Wednesday, St. John Paul II
said:

Why does the Church place ashes on our foreheads today? Why does she
remind us of death? Death which is the effect of sin! Why? To prepare us
for Christ’s Passover. For the paschal mystery of the Redeemer of the
world. Today we need to hear the “you are dust and to dust you will
return” of Ash Wednesday, so that the definitive truth of the gospel, the
truth about the Resurrection, will unfold before us: Believe in the gospel!

Why do Catholics practice fasting and

abstinence during Lent?
CATHOLIC ANSWERS STAFF

Explain that Lent is the 40 days before Easter in which Catholics pray, fast,
contemplate, and engage in acts of spiritual self-discipline. Catholics do
these things because Easter, which celebrates the Resurrection of Christ, is
the greatest holy day of the Christian year (even above Christmas) and
Catholics have recognized that it is appropriate to prepare for such a holy
day by engaging in such disciplines.
(Archbishop Fulton Sheen noted that the Protestant attitude is summarized
by the line, “First comes the feast, then comes the hangover,” while the
Catholic attitude is “First comes the fast, then comes the feast.”)

The reason Lent lasts 40 days is that 40 is the traditional number of

judgment and spiritual testing in the Bible (Gn 7:4, Ex 24:18, 34:28, Nm
13:25, 14:33, Jon 3:4). Lent bears particular relationship to the 40 days
Christ spent fasting in the desert before entering into his public ministry
(Mt 4:1-11). Catholics imitate Christ by spending 40 days in spiritual
discipline before the celebration of Christ’s triumph over sin and death.

Fasting is a biblical discipline that can be defended from both the Old and
the New Testament. Christ expected his disciples to fast (Mt 9:14-15) and
issued instructions for how they should do so (Mt 6:16-18). Catholics
follow this pattern by holding a partial fast on Ash Wednesday and Good
Friday.

Abstinence from certain foods is also a biblical discipline. In Daniel 10:2-3

we read, “In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no
delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at
all, for the full three weeks.” Catholics use a practice similar to Daniel’s
when, as a way of commemorating Christ’s Crucifixion on a Friday, they
abstain from eating meat on that day of the week during Lent. The only
kind of flesh they eat on Friday is fish, which is a symbol of Christ.

Even the Ash Wednesday practice of having one’s forehead signed with
ashes has a biblical parallel. Putting ashes on one’s head was a common
biblical expression of mourning (1 Sm 13:19, Est 4:1, Is 61:3; see also Est
4:3, Jer 6:26, Ez 27:30, Dn 9:3, Mt 11:21, Lk 10:13). By having the sign of
the cross made with ashes on their foreheads, Catholics mourn Christ’s
suffering on the cross and their own sins, which made that suffering
necessary.
To find that out, we need to look at the law of the Church. Let’s start with
the universal law of the Latin Church, as found in the Code of Canon Law.

According to the Code, the universal law in the Latin Church is that
Catholics are to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays
except solemnities. But canon 1251 allows national conferences of bishops
to substitute some other food for meat as the object of abstinence.

Canon 1253 further expands the competence of the national conference in

regulating the practice of abstinence. This means that we in the U.S. need
to look at what the particular law is for the United States and how it may
differ from universal law.