The ancient Aramaic word for ashes used in the Old Testament, our Jewish tradition, is Efer. The ashes symbolize ruin and destruction.
By Becky Schlofner
Ruin and destruction come in many forms. It was these various meanings that gave birth to the penitent being seen laying in ashes or sprinkling themselves with ashes. When we lose all hope in ourselves or in others, we see no way out, that is ruin and destruction. The Bible is riddled with passages of those seeking justice, begging for forgiveness, or promises to do better. What did any one of them do to God to end up in the situations they were in? That’s what they thought. They offended God somehow and they needed to lament, contrite, grieve. A lot of times it took a while to understand the point, such as the story of Job, Daniel, or Ezekiel over Tyre.
Our time of Lent is where we reflect this history in our faith. From Ash Wednesday through Holy Thursday, we are encouraged to give something up that is important to us, donate more, volunteer more, do more. If we don’t have everything, we think we need for ourselves, it is hopeful that you also will lament, contrite or grieve. Ash Wednesday, we get our foreheads blessed with the Holy Cross as we begin our cycle for repentance. Much like John the Baptist, before the people of Judea, stated it was time to repent and prepare for the way of the Lord. Our Lenten time is to prepare ourselves for the joy that is to come.
Historically the use of the cross on the forehead came in to play after each confession as each sinner would wear it as a sign of repentance. It wasn’t until 1091 Pope Urban II declared all the Church should wear the cross on Ash Wednesday.
During Lent, a week before Easter, we have Palm (Passion) Sunday. As we wave our palms in announcement of the Son of God coming in on the back of the donkey, we celebrate His Coming. Most people at Mass take these branches home. It is the Palm branches from Passion Sunday that will become the ashes of next year’s Ash Wednesday Mass. This begins Holy Week which will end at the culmination of Easter Sunday, the time of resurrection and joy.
What else does the use of ashes symbolize? Well, there is the physical death where we come from the dust, or ash or the ground and will return there once again. Then this will bring us to the resurrection of life. What Easter is all about. The end of the cycle of the ashes brings us the joy that the time with Christ gives us, the faith that we understand the Resurrection and Rising of Christ. Then here ,too, we realize that we will meet Him again in our own resurrection to life beside Christ, with God, in heaven.
Resources: https://weekly.israelbiblecenter.com/sitting-sackcloth-ashes
Strong’s Concordance
St. Jerome Biblical Commentary
Franciscan Friars Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Catholic Online
Anglican History of Ashes
