A Cross of Ashes

Homily for Ash Wednesday, Year A
It is easy to remember the ashes that are at the heart of this first day of Lent. From our calling of this day Ash Wednesday to the public sign that is placed on our forehead, the ashes remind us that we are dust – that our lives are fragile – and they are a sign of penitence. But just as important as the ashes at the beginning of our Lenten journey is the shape these ashes make on our foreheads – the shape of a cross. Today we are marked with the cross of Christ.

The purpose of Lent is twofold: Lent is a final preparation for those who are to be baptized at Easter, and it is an annual opportunity for all Christians to recommit to their baptismal faith. These forty days are filled with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in order to help us strip away everything in our lives that obscures the fact that we are baptized people, marked with the sign of the cross. Lent is a journey to the cross, a cross that is black with death on Good Friday, but also a cross that is empty because of new life on Easter Sunday. Lent begins with a cross of ashes to remind us where this journey is going, but also to challenge us to live up to the new life we have been given because of the cross.

Sometimes, though, the ashes on our foreheads end up looking more like a smudge than a cross. Perhaps it is better this way, because our lives more often look like smudged examples of Christ than the perfect image of the Son of God. But even underneath our dirt and grime, there is still a cross, the one cross of Christ, through which we have been saved. Underneath our pride, and ignorance, and jealousy and whatever other sin we carry is the grace of baptism. Today, we begin a journey to the cross: from a cross of ashes, to a cross of wood, to the cross of everlasting life.