Ash Wednesday, 2006-03-01

'Ash Wednesday' is the beginning of the season in the Catholic church known as 'Lent'
I just want to share something about a song we sang at church that day.
I haven't memorised all the words, but mostly it goes like this:

Ashes

We rise again from ashes, from the good we've failed to do,
We rise again from ashes, to create ourselves anew,
If all our world is ashes, then must our lives be too,
An offering of ashes, and offering to You.

Now - i googled the lyrics, and was surprised to find this article and this article where these lyrics were said to be heretical..... there was another, but can't find it now.

Strange.... I was taught long ago to see things 'with the eyes of faith', and so in that context, I never thought of the words 'to create ourselves anew' as being heretical.

To me, the words talk about me making a new decision, having a change of heart, and re-aligning myself to the will of God. That is the only context in which the following lines make sense, i.e. having established that the whole world, and our lives, are no more than ashes, we offer these up as "An offering of ashes, and offering to You." The song continues;

We offer you our failures, we offer you attempts,
The gifts not fully given, the dreams no fully dreamt,
give our stumbling direction, give our visions wider view,
An offering of ashes, an offering to You.

We do not need to be perfect to come before God, indeed, if He wanted perfection, then we are doomed from the word GO. It is our incompleteness, our failures, our stumbling that God loves, so we come to Him in all our brokenness, our seflishness, our parochialism, our limited vision. He takes these ashes, and accepts them with love. And so the song continues;

Then rise again from ashes, let healing come to pain,
Though Spring has turned to winter, and Sunshine turned to rain,
The rain we'll use for growing, and create the world anew,
From an offering of ashes, an offering to You.

In the book of Job (chapter 5 verse 7) it says: "Man is born to suffering.." So this verse talks about the pain and sadness we all feel at one time or another. However, God uses this pain and suffering to make us grow, learn, and become richer in understanding and wisdom. We are raised up by our Creator, like Phoenix from the ashes, into new life. Finally;

Thanks be to the Father, who made us like Himself,
Thanks be to the Son, who saved us by His Death,
Thanks be to the Spirit, who creates the world anew,
From an offering of ashes, and offering to You.

Here we touch the untouchable, speak of the incomprehensible. God is one, and God is three Persons. And God personally involves Himself in

1. Our creation - Not in the sense of our imperfection, but in the sense of our potential to be perfect.
2. Our salvation - By His death, Christ freed us once and for ever from the imperfection of sin. We need only step up and accept this free and unconditional gift, in exchange for our ashes.
3. Our re-creation - We are made new again by the Spirit, who brings new life into our ashes.

If you have read this far, thanks for sharing this short reflection with me.
NOTE: If I have infringed on any copyrights by blogging this reflection, please let me know what I have done wrong, and I will remove the offending content. Thanks !
Pax Vobiscum