February 22, 2012
Ash Wednesday is the first day of the season of Lent for Christians. Christians around the world celebrate this season to mark the beginning of six and a half weeks (40 days) of repentance, fasting and abstinence in preparation for the most important Christian festival of Easter. By definition, the season of Lent is the time of preparation for Holy Week, leading up to Easter. With Ash Wednesday, we begin our yearly preparation for our baptismal renewal on Easter. This year Ash Wednesday will be starting of 22 February 2012. The date of Ash Wednesday varies each year according to the date of Easter. The earliest possible date of Ash Wednesday is 4 February and the latest possible date is 10 March.
As a comparative study of the Lent of 40 days, we read in the Old Testament that it rained forty days and nights during the Great Flood (Genesis 7:12), Moses communed with God on Mount Sinai for forty days before receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:18), the people of Israel were forced to wander in the wilderness for forty years (Numbers 14:33-34),) Elijah journeyed for forty days before he reached Mount Horeb and had a vision of God (1 Kings 19:8-9), Jonah 3:6 states: "When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust." and the inhabitants of Nineveh fasted and repented for forty days in response to the preaching of Jonah (Jonah 3:4-5). The prophet Daniel speaks of seeking the Lord for the release of his people from Babylonian exile with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (Daniel 9:3).
The outstanding instances of the number forty in the New Testament are the account of Christ’s ordeal in the desert fasting, praying, and being tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; and Luke 4:1-13) before the beginning of His public ministry and His various appearances to the apostles and others between His resurrection and ascension during which He strengthened their faith and prepared them for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3).
Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. When studying Ash Wednesday history, ashes are often considered to be a symbol of man's mortality and represent an attitude of humility, sorrow, and repentance (Genesis 18:27). The solemn proceedings that occur on Ash Wednesday bring the focus back to the sacrifice of Christ and the mission of the Church. The observance most likely comes from the Biblical Day of Atonement. In Leviticus 16, the Lord establishes an annual day of repentance for the Israelites as a lasting ordinance for all their generations. Since the blood of Jesus represents atonement, the heart of Ash Wednesday is a humbling of oneself through fasting and prayer. The custom was even recorded during Biblical times of people humbling themselves with sackcloth and ashes.
It is essentially a gesture of humility, which means: I recognize myself for what I am, a frail creature, made of earth and destined to the earth, but also made in the image of God and destined to him. Dust, yes, but loved, molded by love, animated by his vital breath, capable of recognizing his voice and of responding to him; free and, because of this, also capable of disobeying him, yielding to the temptation of pride and self-sufficiency. This is sin, the mortal sickness that soon entered to contaminate the blessed earth that is the human being. Created in the image of the Holy and Righteous One, man lost his own innocence and he can now return to be righteous only thanks to the righteousness of God, the righteousness of love that as St. Paul writes — was manifested “through faith in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:22). Though God is all merciful, all powerful and all forgiving, God is also holy, righteous and just.
Thus Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this forty days liturgical period of prayer and fasting. Ashes are something that is left when something is burned. Using ashes to mark the cross on the believer's forehead symbolizes that through Christ's death and resurrection, thus all Christians can be free from sin. This is the great faith that practice is common in much of Christendom, being celebrated by Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and some Baptist denominations around the world.
Now let us see the requirement for fasting on Ash wednesday are: Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. In addition, all Catholics 14 years old and older must abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all the Fridays of Lent. Some food (not equaling another full meal) is permitted at breakfast and around midday or in the evening—depending on when a person chooses to eat the main or full meal.
Abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, milk products or condiments made of animal fat. Abstinence does not include meat juices and liquid foods made from meat. Thus, such foods as chicken broth, consomme, soups cooked or flavored with meat, meat gravies or sauces, as well as seasonings or condiments made from animal fat are not forbidden. So it is permissible to use margarine and lard. Even bacon drippings which contain little bits of meat may be poured over lettuce as seasoning.
The Bishops of each regions specially quote the teaching of the Holy Father (Pope)concerning the seriousness of observing these days of penance. The obligation to do penance is a serious one; the obligation to observe, as a whole or "substantially," the days of penance is also serious. But no one should be scrupulous in this regard; failure to observe individual days of penance is not considered serious. Moral theologians remind us that some people are excused from fasting and/or abstinence because of sickness or other reasons.
Most importantly In his "Apostolic Constitution on Penance," Pope Paul VI did more than simply reorganize Church law concerning fast and abstinence. He reminded us of the divine law that each of us in our own way do penance. We must all turn from sin and make reparation to God for our sins. We must forgive and show love for one another just as we ask for God's love and forgiveness. Attending Mass daily or several times a week, praying the rosary, making the way of the cross, attending the parish evening prayer service, teaching the illiterate to read, reading to the blind, helping at a soup kitchen, visiting the sick and shut-ins and giving an overworked mother a break by baby-sitting—all of these can be even more meaningful and demanding than simply abstaining from meat on Friday.
For Christians, ashes are a symbol of being sorry for things they have done wrong and want to get rid of forever. It is also a reminder to them that we all come from ashes and to ashes we all will return. For Christians, the marking on the forehead with ash marks the commitment to Jesus Christ son of God and God the Father of All Mankind. They wanted to show God that they were sorry for the wrong things they had done in the past year. Using a mark on the forehead as a sign of commitment is also used in many Middle Eastern as well as Eastern cultures where a round, colored circle is marked on the forehead.
As such to observe this Ash Wednesday many Christians will attend a religious service .At Masses and services of worship on this day, ashes are blessed by the Priest an imposed on the foreheads of the faithful (or on the tonsure spots, in the case of some clergy). The priest, minister, or in some cases officiating layperson, marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes in the shape of a cross, which the worshipper traditionally retains until it wears off. Christians believe this marks the physical and spiritual beginning of Lent season in which 40days of repentance will begin leading up to the celebration of Easter Sunday. The actual moment and tradition when the forehead is marked of throwing ashes over one's head to signify the beginning of lent for each individual person repentance before God (as related in the Bible). The priest or minister says one or both of the following when applying the ashes: “Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.”
In churches the priest first burns the palm that have been kept from last year's Palm Sunday and then mixes the ashes of these crosses with holy water (which has been blessed) to make a greyish paste. When people go to church on Ash Wednesday, the priest dips his thumb in the paste and uses it to make the sign of the cross on each person's forehead. Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, so when the crosses used in the last years Palm Sunday service are converted to ashes, worshippers are reminded that defeat and crucifixion swiftly followed triumph.
In an old Ash Wednesday tradition, penitents who had committed grave sins would come wearing shifts made from rough cloth or animal hair. The priest would bless them and sprinkle ashes over them while they recited the Seven Penitential Psalms. The penitents would leave the church and for the next forty days strive for repentance and absolution. They would then return on Maundy Thursday (Nimano or last Brestar-and-receive-Communion-from-the-priest.
One of the major tenets of the Christian faith is living one's life with humility and repentance. For many Christians, the origins of Ash Wednesday are the annual reminder of where our hearts should be in relation to God, and of the reason Jesus became our atonement.
Last but not the least that Jesus Christ put all the ten beautiful Commandments of God are put in one single beautiful statement that What we call the Greatest Commandment by (Jesus Christ)son of God that First Love thyself and love your neighbor so that we say that we love God. So at least during this period let us focus our lives in this direction to Love God and our neighbor perfectly. Above all let us start this Ash Wednesday as a preparation of the Great feast of Easter. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead and live with the faith that one day we all rise and live with God for ever. Let it be. Wish all the readers a fruitful season of lent.
This article is helping and a reflection for us Christians in particular during this lent season and all other faiths in general, let the peace of Lord Jesus Christ among all mankind from above. Wish all the readers a fruitful and happy season of lent.
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