Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
Ash Wednesday!
I'm sure that since today's Ash Wednesday or right now is the season of Ash Wednesday
that you probably have heard a ton of people who say things like you know they're really clever,
trying to get people to come to Mass on Ash Wednesday
so they say things like, "Hey, get your ash to Mass."
Ash is meant to sound like another word for butts.
It's an attempt to be like, "Let's kind of be hip and with-it"
or whatever the thing, whatever the words the kids are using these days out on the playground.
Or you have the whole out there on Instagram, I'm sure, today is that #ashtag kind of a thing,
which is great, fine, awesome, fun.
I love the fact that there's more and more Catholics who are kind of like, "No, it's OK. It's fine."
Because I talk to so many people who are like, "I hate Ash Wednesday.
I don't like wearing those ashes on my forehead for a number of reasons."
Some people are like, "I don't like clogging my pores."
"I get nervous about this."
Others are like, "I go to the grocery store
and someone has no idea what Ash Wednesday is."
It's like, "Hey, you have some dirt on your face,"
which I always like to play that off like, "Really? Where? I'm so sorry. What?"
And it's like, "No, on your forehead." I'm like, "Oh, it's Ash Wednesday."
So, I understand there's some people who are uncomfortable about this
or people who celebrate it.
They love it because it's the HCC day.
Hardcore Catholic day, where you get to kind of be a little bit more public
or demonstrate the fact that you're Catholic.
But here's the interesting thing:
Where does the whole "dust and ashes" thing come from?
Well in the Bible, often times when someone was covered in dust and ashes
or sitting in dust and ashes,
it marked a very specific moment in their life.
It marked a low point in their life.
It actually marked a turning point in their life,
where they got to realize somehow, somehow they realize,
maybe a prophet came and spoke to them or someone else came and spoke to them
or they just realized, "Wait a second.
I cannot go on like this."
In fact, it was so serious, this low point, this turning point in their life was so serious
that they came to the conclusion of, "If I continue in this way,
my life is a disaster.
If I continue living the way I live, my life is in ruins.
I'm gonna die like this."
And that's what the ashes are about.
That whole notion of all of us are called to get to the place where we realize
"There's something I need to repent. I need to change, a turning point."
That awareness of "There's something I need to repent of,"
it has a two-fold purpose, I think.
And the twofold purpose is just what I think St. John Paul the Great
talked about in his Theology of the Body, he mentioned this.
He mentioned that at the moment where the man and the woman fell after eating the fruit,
and their eyes were opened,
he called it "the entrance of shame into human existence."
Up until then, there was no shame. In fact, it says in the end of chapter 2 in Genesis.
It says the man and woman were naked and yet they felt no shame,
but then there was the entrance of shame.
And he said shame has a two-fold purpose at that moment.
On the one hand, they need to cover themselves up. There's a sense of "there's something wrong right now"
and that's the kind of shame that most of us experience.
It's the kind of shame that most of us feel when we've done something wrong.
And he says that's one sense, that's the negative sense of shame
but the other sense of shame is why are they covering up?
They're covering up because they realize there's something beautiful here.
There's something good here that's not being honored.
There's something good here that's not being loved.
There's something good here that's not a gift but is simply grasping.
The twofold since the entrance of shame.
I think the same thing is true when it comes to that knowledge of needing to repent.
There's people who say, "I don't even know what I would repent of."
I don't necessarily think that's as much numbness to their sin
as much as it might be they have no idea how incredible they're supposed to be.
Ash Wednesday, this day that we wear these ashes on our forehead,
really what it's meant to be
is a moment where we realize
something is wrong in the world.
It's not supposed to be like this.
Ash Wednesday is the day when I look in my heart and say, "There is something wrong with my heart.
I'm not supposed to be like this.
I love things I shouldn't love and I don't love things I should love.
There's something wrong with my heart."
It's not supposed to be like this and we repent in dust and ashes.
Now that doesn't mean you're bad. It means the exact opposite,
just like the two twofold nature of shame one is "Ugh, there's some wrong here."
The other is because it's supposed to be so good and that's the reality
to recognize that you and I are called
to be incredible.
And that's why those ashes, they aren't just like a bowl of ashes dumped over our heads,
they are ashes in a particular shape.
Yeah, I'm not as I should be.
I haven't lived the life that I should live.
I haven't made the choices that I should have chosen.
That's the ash part.
Then the cross part
is the fact that, in the midst of this,
Jesus claims you as his.
So, yeah, even with your broken heart and your broken life,
even with the bad choices you made,
and just think about this:
Today, as you go forward to receive those ashes on your forehead
or if you did it this morning and you have those ashes on your forehead now,
when you came forward and the person said,
"Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return"
or they said "Repent and believe the Gospel,"
the thing I just invite you to hear is even more than this
as that ash covered thumb came forward and traced that cross on your forehead,
hear this one word spoken over you by God himself,
"Mine."
"You're mine."
Yeah, but, I have all these things I need to repent of, there's my broken heart is not how it should be.
And Jesus says, "Yeah,
but you're mine."
And not just how great you can be,
that's not just what's mine.
In this moment, you let Jesus take your sin, too.
Because that's why it's a cross because Jesus did not only claim your heart,
Jesus claimed your sins as his.
He looks at your sins and says, "Mine."
And that's why on this Ash Wednesday we wear ashes
because it's a sign of the things in my life that I need to turn away from,
but those ashes are in the sign of a cross, the shape of a cross,
which is not only the image of the thing that I'm turning towards,
it's also the price tag that Jesus was willing to pay
to win your heart back.
because no, your heart isn't like it should be
but it is good
and apparently,
God believes that it's worth dying for.
So when you wear these ashes and someone says, "Why do you have dirt on your forehead?"
or "What do you think, you're holier than the rest of us?
"No, the answer," I'd invite you to say, "no, the answer is this:
The ashes mean I'm a sinner
but the cross means that I have a savior.
The ashes mean I'm not who I should be,
but the cross means there's a God who believes so fully of me
that he is making me right now into the person that he believes I can be."
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike.
God bless.