January/February 2008

Falls the Remorseful Day

Beloved in Christ,

Ash Wednesday, the First Day of Lent, falls early this year, on February 6.

The sometimes gloomy English poet A. E. Housman wrote these words of reminder:

Past touch and sight and sound
Not further to be found.
Now hopeless underground
Falls the remorseful day.

When sin is subtle, when it is not notorious, when it becomes a way of life, it is no less destructive to our souls than are life’s “big sins”. There is an ancient Chinese proverb: “If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.”

Ash Wednesday is a one day opportunity to check the direction in which we are headed. Many people show up in church on this day to receive ashes on their foreheads as a sign of piety. They want to be seen by the world as living the Christian Life. However, the display of ashes really signifies not our piety, or holiness, but a personal recognition that we are sinners, that we sometimes fail. It is not a badge of honor but rather one of humility.

I’ve often wanted to stand at the altar rail and ask each person who receives ashes exactly what plan the individual has in place to improve his or her spiritual life during the forty days of Lent. I know that I would sometimes want to say “no plan, no ashes” because little thought has gone into the ritual. This is not a “form and substance” rite, and, for this reason, my own ashes do not remain on my forehead for very long. I am not to show the world my piety, but rather to keep my Lenten devotion to myself: to really keep it, and work at it, and offer it up to God.

In the weeks to come, you and I will have opportunities – additional ones here at church, certainly, and private times at home – to move our lives onto a healthier path, one which brings us closer to God so that we need not fear “the remorseful day” of judgment.

In the Name of the Church, I bid you – I invite you – to keep a Holy Lent and thereby enrich your souls and your lives in the present with Christ our Lord.

In preparation for Lent, I am faithfully in Christ,

The Venerable Theodore W. Bean, Jr.