"Sackcloth and ashes" is a familiar phrase, arising from a medieval custom of humbling oneself in public before God or the Church community to beg forgiveness. But dust or ashes go even further back as sign of mourning to the time of Moses and the Old Testament.
Within Christian churches today, the custom continues in the application of blessed ashes to the foreheads of the faithful in the sign of the cross, with the exhortation “Repent and believe in the Gospel”.
The ashes remind us of our mortality, our sinfulness and we leave them on our forehead as a sign of humility.
The Church emphasizes the penitential nature of Ash Wednesday by calling us to fast and abstain from meat. Catholics who are over the age of 18 and under the age of 60 are required to fast, which means that they can eat only one complete meal and two smaller ones during the day, with no food in between. Catholics who are over the age of 14 are required to refrain from eating any meat, or any food made with meat, on Ash Wednesday.
This fasting and abstinence is not simply a form of penance, it is also a call for us to take stock of our spiritual lives.
Let us be one with the whole Filipino Church in our desire for renewal but let us start it within ourselves and in our own small community. If its one of us will radiate a renewed life then our community will magnify the little contribution of each one to effect change. Let us start again today.
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