Ashes ready for distribution

Abbot Michael Brunner delivered this homily to the School at its Mass for Ash Wednesday.

In just a few moments we will have a cross marked on our foreheads with these ashes. This marks for us the beginning of Lent, which should be an out of the ordinary time for us. Ashes may seem a strange symbol to us. We don’t come into much contact with ashes anymore. Maybe we do if we use a fireplace at home, or if we go camping. Most people don’t smoke anymore, so you don’t come into contact with those ashes. Nobody gives ash trays as gifts any more.

Tabernacle with Lenten covering

Ashes have a very ancient symbolism for humanity. In the oldest form of Hinduism, the god Shiva was believed to live in the places where ashes were placed, where bodies were burned. Ashes were believed to have regenerative power for the human spirit, and those who were most serious about serving God were advised to lie in beds of ashes and rub ashes on their bodies. Almost everything we see around us and use in our human lives, almost all human progress can be traced back to fire. Just like control of fire was a skill that radically changed the way all humans lived: with fire they could cook food, purify water, heat their homes on cold nights and at winter, refine ores to make metal tools: all these important activities produced ashes from the fuel that was burned. Ashes were a product of human mastery of the world and also a hint of what was to come for every human being.