BY FATHER JOHN SCHMOLL
St. Joseph’s Church, Los Banos
Last Wednesday, as you may know, was Ash Wednesday. It is the beginning of the season of Lent. It specifically commemorates the time Jesus spent fasting in the desert.
While most of us know that Lent lasts 40 days, it actually covers 46 days. In our Catholic tradition, we do not include the six Sundays of Lent as part of Lent. So, 46 minus 6 equals 40. The Sundays are not included because they are seen as “little Easters.” Every Sunday of the year we celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, even during Lent. Thus, they are not days of penance or fasting, but of celebration.
One of the old traditions, which many still follow, is to move birthdays or anniversaries that fall on weekdays of Lent to a Sunday so that they may be properly and joyously celebrated. My mother almost always had her birthday fall during Lent. She came from a very strict German Catholic background. She almost never celebrated her birthday on her actual birthday. She almost always celebrated it on the closest Sunday.
This year, her birthday (March 5) is Ash Wednesday. She would not have been too happy about that. Not only could she not have celebrated her birthday, but she would have to fast, as well. She would not have been a “happy camper.”
The earliest possible date for Ash Wednesday is Feb. 4. The latest possible date is March 10. Days for Ash Wednesday and Lent change, because Easter is a movable feast. Unlike Christmas, it does not fall on the same date every year. Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. So, this year, Lent and Easter are quite late.
Again, in the Catholic tradition, Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation. That means that we are not under the obligation to attend Mass on that day. We will have seven or eight services on Ash Wednesday and only two will be Masses. The others will be Liturgies of the Word.
Even though it is not a holy day of obligation, the services were very full, with the evening services being packed to the gills. It is one of the days where almost every Catholic in Los Banos will come to church—those who come weekly, those who rarely come, those who never come, as well as those who have left and joined other denominations.
Ashes are given on the forehead in the United States. In Europe, ashes are marked on the top of the head. No matter where they are, ashes are a sign of our mortality. The traditional line while giving the ashes is, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). Traditionally, the ashes for this year will have come from the burning of the palms we received last year on Palm Sunday. Some churches continue this tradition, while others buy ashes from religious goods stores each year.
Catholics fast two days a year. One is during Lent (Ash Wednesday) and the other is during the Sacred Triduum (Good Friday). Each Friday during Lent we are called to abstain from eating meat. During the rest of the Lenten season we are asked to make a personal sacrifice that will come from one of the legs of the Lenten “tripod”—fasting (perhaps a day or two of fasting each week); prayer (to help our relationship with the Lord Jesus to grow more deeply); almsgiving (donations of money or items on a regular basis during Lent to people in need).
In a homily a couple of weeks ago I gave our congregation some possible suggestions for personal sacrifices. I gave them ten. I just “googled” great Lenten sacrifices and hundreds came onto the screen.
Here are just a few: Pray for a personal enemy every day during Lent (46 days; no Sundays off; do not tell anyone you are praying); Pray for a friend—or someone you know (postal carrier; checker at the grocery store; waiter at restaurant) during Lent (again, for 46 days; no Sundays off; do not tell anyone you are praying); and, take your most difficult sin/temptation to overcome and really work at overcoming it during these forty-six days (no days off). We can have more than one personal sacrifice, but we should always have, at least, one—children and adults.
Lent is a time of personal reflection that has as its fruit the deepening of our personal relationship with the Lord and our reaching out to others in need of anything. It reminds us that we are in sinners in need of forgiveness, repentance, and most especially, mercy. We want to use Lent as a commitment to correct our faults, purify our hearts, and control our desires. It is a time completely centered around our need of conversion and the only one who can bring that about in us—the Lord Jesus. It is not for just forty or forty-six days. May what we begin today continue, in some fashion, for the rest of our lives. Peace!
