Few write with the precision and clarity of Jimmy (James) Akin regarding Catholic matters. Mr. Akin's work in Catholic apologetics is thorough and through his writings he presents and articulates ideas and concepts with an understandable expertise. He is a Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers and is heard frequently on the Catholic Answers radio program. More of his writings may be found at Catholic.com, as well as his own blog, http://jimmyakin.org/.
The Day of Ashes
By James Akin
Ash Wednesday, the day Lent begins, occurs forty days before Good Friday. Some Fundamentalists claim Ash Wednesday is based on a pagan festival, but it originated in the A.D. 900s, long after Europe had been Christianized and the pagan cults stamped out.
Ash Wednesday is actually a colloquial name. The official name is the Day of Ashes, because on that day the faithful have their foreheads marked with ashes in the shape of a cross.
In the Bible, a mark on the forehead is a symbol of ownership. By having his forehead marked with the sign of a cross, a person symbolizes that he belongs to Jesus Christ, who died on a cross. This is in imitation of the spiritual mark or seal that is put on a Christian in baptism, when he is delivered from slavery to sin and the devil and made a slave of righteousness and Christ (Rom. 6:3-18). It also imitates the way the righteous are described in the book of Revelation: "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads" (Rev.7:3). Or again, "Then I looked, and, lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads" (Rev. 14:1). This is in contrast to the followers of the beast, who have the number 666 on their foreheads or hands.
This reference to the sealing of the servants of God for their protection has a parallel passage in Ezekiel: "And the Lord said to him [one of the four cherubim], 'Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark [literally, a tav] upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.' And to the others he said in my hearing, 'Pass through the city after him, and smite; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity; slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one upon whom is the mark'" (Ezek. 9:4-6).
Like most modern translations, the Revised Standard Version quoted above is not sufficiently literal here. What it actually says is to place a tav on the foreheads of the righteous inhabitants of Jerusalem. Tav is one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and in ancient script it looked like the Greek letter chi-two crossed lines like an x. It is also the first letter in the Greek word for Christ (christos). The Jewish rabbis commented on the connection between tav and chi. This is undoubtedly the mark Revelation has in mind when the servants of God are sealed with it.
The Church Fathers expounded on this tav-chi-cross-christos connection in their homilies, seeing in Ezekiel a prophetic foreshadowing of the sealing of Christians as servants of Christ. It is also part of the background of the Catholic practice of making the sign of the cross, which in the early centuries (as can be documented from the second century on) consisted of using one's thumb to trace a small sign of the cross on one's forehead-like Catholic do today at the reading of the Gospel during Mass.
On the first day of Lent, this signing is done with ashes because they are a biblical symbol of mourning and penance. In Bible times the custom was to fast, wear sackcloth, sit in dust and ashes, and put dust and ashes on one's head (cf. 1 Sam. 4:12; 2 Sam. 1:20, 13:19, 15:32). Ashes also symbolize death and so remind us of our mortality. When the priest uses his thumb to sign one of the faithful with the ashes and says, "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return," he is echoing God's address to Adam (Gen. 3:19; cf. Job 34:15; Ps. 90:3, 104:29; Eccles. 3:20). This phrase also echoes the words at a Catholic burial, "Ashes to ashes; dust to dust," which is based on God's words to Adam in Genesis 3 and Abraham's confession, "I am nothing but dust and ashes" (Gen. 18:27).
Catholics are not required to have their foreheads signed with ashes. It is, though, strongly advised as a visible spiritual reminder that encourages us to adopt an attitude of prayer, repentance, and humility.
Neither is Ash Wednesday a holy day of obligation. Holy days are either commemorations of particular events (such as the birth of Christ), particular people (such as Jesus' earthly father, Joseph), or important theological concepts (such as the Kingship of Christ). Ash Wednesday does not commemorate any event and could be said only indirectly to commemorate a Person (Christ), since it is the beginning of preparation for the greater celebrations of Christ's saving work that follow. However, attending Mass is a fitting way to mark the beginning of penitential season of Lent. Also, it is a day of fast and abstinence.1
1Retrieved from http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0104fea1sb.asp on February 18, 2010, "This Rock" magazine, Vol. 12, Number 4 - April 2001 Issue
For more information please refer to www.Catholic.com
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