Remember!  Repent!  Believe!

The penitential character of what we observe as church during the Lenten season has surely been magnified during the past year! 

Beginning in March 2020, Lent was quickly interrupted by a total lockdown.  The faithful were unable to worship in person as we are usually accustomed. Individually and collectively, we were forced to literally “give up” a sense of normalcy for nearly a year without any indication the pandemic would soon be over.  

Most notable this past year was our inability to gather for the Easter Triduum to celebrate the foundational and life-giving memorials of the institution of the Eucharist and the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Allow me again to express my gratitude to every pastor and parishioner for working together to meet the challenges of this past year. Unfortunately, we are still in need of vigilance to slow the spread of this virus.  But unlike last year we are better prepared so we WILL observe and celebrate the liturgies of Lent, Holy Week and Easter this year even if our gatherings will still need to reflect the realities of our time.   Our first Lenten liturgy is Ash Wednesday, so I give this instruction for our gatherings.

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments published guidance on Jan. 12 regarding the distribution of ashes on Ash Wednesday.  “The priest should first address all those present, and he only says the formula “Repent, and believe in the  

“Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” once over all the people.  Wearing their masks, clergy and lay ministers are instructed to sprinkle the ashes on the head of each person without saying anything.”  

In the Diocese of Baton Rouge, we will adopt this guidance with one variation, and I ask the cooperation of the clergy and laity in this practice unique to 2021.  Receiving ashes will follow the same practices used in your parish for approaching the altar for receiving Communion with mask and physical distancing.  

Since reciting the admonition to Repent/Remember is no different from saying “The Body of Christ” at Communion, I suggest, but leave to the discretion of the pastors, the option to proclaim the call to conversion individually to each person.  While the distribution of ashes via sprinkling over the head is not a common practice in the United States, it is more widespread in Europe and other countries. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ do not let this small change become a distraction for you from the deeper meaning of this ritual marking the beginning of our Lent.  Listen to the admonition when you receive the ashes: “Remember that we are dust …” or to “Repent and believe …” This pandemic has turned us all around. 

During this Lenten season we need to pull away from the world, with its pervasive chatter that relentlessly tempts us to seek pleasures, power, possessions, so we can create a penitential silence where we are able to once again hear God’s call to holiness. Through our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving we “REMEMBER we are dust …” and that we do not live forever in this world because our ultimate destiny is to be with God.  

We remember that we do not have forever to make a change, but in fact, “Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor 6:2).   

We also rediscover that Lent is a time to “repent and believe in the Gospel, to turn away from the darkness of sin and to live in the light.”

 These calls to conversion on Ash Wednesday reveal the heart and soul of the season of Lent.  It is not about where we get ashes on our heads but rather more about whether the external sign of ashes reflects that we are interiorly accepting the call to change our lives and get ourselves right with God.   

This is why I am asking that we all accept the sprinkling of ashes as the way we, as a diocese, will receive ashes this year.  I suggest that as we approach to receive the ashes we bow our heads, humbly, receiving the ashes on the top of our heads and taking to heart the words from the prophet Joel to “Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God”(Jl 2:12-18). This Ash Wednesday let us humbly receive our ashes on the head and then Remember, Repent and Believe!