Today is Ash Wednesday, the Christian festival that marks the beginning of the season of Lent. Lent lasts forty days (excluding Sundays) and commemorates Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness before beginning his three-year ministry. Included during this period is His thrice temptation by Satan, each of which was rejected. These events are part of the three Synoptic Gospels by Matthew, Mark and Luke, so the provenance or documentary proof is solid.
Today at many of our churches, parishioners will be signed using ashes from palm crosses with the sign of the cross on their forehead when the priest will remind them, “you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.” It is a simple gesture and words to remind us of our mortality. It is also a reminder to ask God for forgiveness of our sins which are manifold. Implied is the Grace of God, the free gift to those who believe and accept Jesus Christ as Savior. Repeatedly, we ask for forgiveness and beg for redemption.