By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
It is completely possible that I was not in the right frame of mind to receive Father John Evans’s proclamation on Ash Wednesday that Lent is a season of joy.
I had a stiff neck all day. A friend asked what I was doing for Valentine’s Day and I muttered something about sackcloth and ashes and we are dust and to dust we shall return. “Wow,” she said, “sounds exciting.” Fasting makes me kind of hangry. Plus, I had decided reluctantly to give up beer, wine, and Jack Daniels/Ginger Ale for the next 40 days. So there’s that too.
Despite my stiffnecked crankiness, Father John persisted. He described Lent as a time of new beginnings, a time to take stock and change and enhance our relationships with God and others, a time when our prayers and sacrifices (notably fasting and almsgiving) help our fellow men and women.
In my head, I responded to the good priest by saying, “Well, OK. But Lent is about penance, self-denial, giving up things, crosses, suffering, and crucifixion. Right? How joyful is that?”
Almost on cue, a series of unexpected events at the Ash Wednesday service added some exclamation points to Father John’s proclamation of joy.
A family of five, two parents and three young kids were sitting in front of us. The kids were well-behaved, but wiggly. The parents separated them, and that brought back memories of our own Ash Wednesdays filled with three young wiggling kids. Good memories.
We Catholics like masses where we get stuff (like Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday), so there was a good crowd lined up for ashes. One of the designated distributors was a blind woman. No one was going to her line, and everyone was going to Father John instead. So Father John put her in his central distribution spot and moved way over to the side. And then a sweet little altar girl guided her hand to each forehead to place the ashes. That all warmed my heart up a bit.
Unbeknownest to me, my grown son was at the Mass too and in the line to get ashes. As he passed by, he grabbed my shoulder in greeting, an excellent surprise. Very nice.
Then, my wife Vicki slipped her hand in mine and whispered our traditional Ash Wednesday joke: “Did you know you have dirt on your head?” I had to smile at that one.
As another writer has explained better than me, the word “Lent” is derived from an olde-Germanico-English word for spring, as in renewal, rejuvenation, a pruning and winnowing, so that new and vibrant growth may take root and flourish. Father John and a series of unexpected Ash Wednesday events helped an old curmudgeon like me understand all that better this week.
So, trying to get into the spirit of the season- Happy Lent everyone!
