Ash Wednesday (RCL Cycle B)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
14 February 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ashes \u2014 charcoal black, smoothed grit, damped by a bit of oil, spread lavishly or stingily across a smooth brow. Some of us will pray for just a tiny smudge, not a glaring cross; others move silently down the aisle, happy to be marked outrageously, bits of dust dropping down their cheeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s all right to think of death \u2014 just today. Tomorrow, don\u2019t talk about wills or funeral arrangements. That would tempt the reaper, wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We tend to go from being practical Christians to superstitious humans the day after today. A priest I know preached on one far-back Ash Wednesday: \u201cWho of us won\u2019t be here next year?\u201d he asked. Well, that was awkward. We don\u2019t really want to think about that journey into transformed, resurrected life. Leave that until we have no other recourse than to stare our mortality in the face and try to turn away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ashes \u2014 marking us, reminding us, encouraging us to grasp those words: \u201cYou are dust and to dust you shall return.\u201d Yes, we shall return to dust. The one leading the committal may let earth fall gently into the grave, to rattle on the coffin, bringing the dead back to its origin. Or the ashes of our humanity may be thrown to the wind, poured into an ocean, laid gently on a field \u2014 but Christ calls out, \u201cIt\u2019s not the end!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In death, the grit of ash is brushed away by God\u2019s hand and the dead are transformed into light, cloaked with love, and united with God. For us, today, the living who will walk back down the aisle and out into the world, the ash might be brushed away by our own hand \u2014 but a hand cupped in God\u2019s own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We, too, can be transformed while we are still here \u2014 transformed by light, cloaked with love, and united with God in our living among God\u2019s people. Let the mark, the grit, the oil, the feel of another\u2019s finger on our brow help us look without fear at our mortality. Let the reminder that we are being transformed from glory to glory by God\u2019s love and promise of resurrection help us face who and what we are with courage, confident in God\u2019s promise of everlasting life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ash Wednesday (RCL Cycle B) 14 February 2024 Ashes \u2014 charcoal black, smoothed grit, damped by a bit of oil, spread lavishly or stingily across a smooth brow. Some of us will pray for just a tiny smudge, not a glaring cross; others move silently down the aisle, happy to be marked outrageously, bits of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,43,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-father-george","category-homily","category-inspirational"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}