Dust to dust.

The two main questions Catholics have about Ash Wednesday tend to be "When can I get ashes?" and "How soon can I get rid of them?"

Not, oddly enough, "Is Ash Wednesday a holy day of obligation?" (It isn't.)

The questions are strange, the equivalent of "When can I come get something free and how fast can I dump it?"

In the past I've made fun of Catholics who take this attitude. And I am currently doing so and probably will in the future. But it doesn't mean I don't understand the attitude and even the decency that underlies the thinking.

There are a few ways to look at this. As Catholics we are taught that at least you ought to come to church to participate in the Day of Ashes, getting ashes in the shape of a cross, for the reminder of our mortality (ash) and that we belong to Jesus (in the shape of a cross). Both of these things are good for humility and for hope.

After getting them some Catholics can't wait to get rid of them. Maybe they're embarrassed, or maybe they don't want people to think they are showing off like the hypocrites in Matthew 6:5: "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward." So there are good reasons behind the seemingly contradictory actions of Catholics on this day. (For the record, the church usually encourages parishioners to keep the ashes on as a reminder to those we encounter that it is now Lent. I have a tendency to pull my cap down low, though....)

We're also encouraged to stick around for Mass on Ash Wednesday, although it is not an obligation, and Wednesday's a work day and all...

It's nice that churches even give out ashes without the obligation to attend Mass. It's hard enough to get people to go to the six non-Sunday days of obligation. In the Archdiocese of New York those are New Year's (Solemnity of Mary), Ascension Thursday, Assumption of Mary, All Saints' Day, the Immaculate Conception, and Christmas.

I'm writing this on Tuesday evening, and our plan is to go to church at six a.m. tomorrow for the distribution of ashes. Then I plan to go to work and try to not think about food until dinnertime. Okay, I'll check in following the six a.m. ash splotching.

(Music of time passing....)

Here we are back home on Ash Wednesday at 6:45 a.m. We got there at 6:13. The pastor told us that when he came to open the church there'd been about 25 people waiting. And then a fistfight broke out -- nah, just kidding.

I've been to Ash Wednesday distributions several times when I worked in Midtown Manhattan, and it was like an assembly line of repentance. I'd just walk into whichever church it was and get on the first line I saw, often running out into the vestibule, and come out covered in ashes. (Some ministers really like to splorch ya, especially with the grand mural my forehead presents.) Today we actually had time for a little reading from the book of Joel:

Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God,
For he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love,
and relenting in punishment.

followed by some prayers before receiving ashes. It was good.

So we're off on this journey of Lent, and I wish you all good graces. And if you're getting ashes today, I hope you get a tasteful little cross and not a big ol' splorch. It gets on your nose.