Good morning fellow Nairalanders, please what is the significance of "Ash Wednesday"?
Just this morning I woke up, prepared for work only to come out of my house and find my Catholic Neighbours all bearing a sign of the cross, written with ashes, on their forehead. When I asked them the significance of the ash on their forehead, they felt as though I was challenging their believe and asked me if I was greater than their priest who asked them to apply it.
Please am a Pentecostal and I've been seeing this practice which is common among Catholics and I've not been able to find someone who knows the significance or has a scriptural backing for this.
Please help me clarify........ Thank you

MetroStar:
Good morning fellow Nairalanders, please what is the significance of "Ash Wednesday"?
Just this morning I woke up, prepared for work only to come out of my house and find my Catholic Neighbours all bearing a sign of the cross, written with ashes, on their forehead. When I asked them the significance of the ash on their forehead, they felt as though I was challenging their believe and asked me if I was greater than their priest who asked them to apply it.
Please am a Pentecostal and I've been seeing this practice which is common among Catholics and I've not been able to find someone who knows the significance or has a scriptural backing for this.
Please help me clarify........ Thank you

Please take time to go through to the end.... thanks.

Q: What is Ash Wednesday?
A: Ash Wednesday is the day Lent begins. It occurs forty days before Good Friday.

Q: Is Ash Wednesday based on a pagan festival?

A: Heck, no. Ash Wednesday originated in the A.D. 900s, long after Europe had been Christianized and the pagan cults stamped out.

Q: Why is it called Ash Wednesday?

A: Actually, Ash Wednesday is its colloquial name. Its official name is the Day of Ashes. It is called Ash <Wednesday> because, being forty days before Good Friday, it always falls on a Wednesday and it is called <Ash> Wednesday because on that day at church the faithful have their foreheads marked with ashes in the shape of a cross.

Q: Why do they have their foreheads marked with a cross?

A: Because in the Bible a mark on the forehead is a symbol of a person's ownership. By having their foreheads marked with the sign of a cross, this symbolizes that the person belongs to Jesus Christ, who died on a Cross.

This is in imitation of the spiritual mark or seal that is put on a Christian in baptism, when he is delivered from slavery to sin and the devil and made a slave of righteousness and Christ (Rom. 6:3-18).

It is also in imitation of the way the righteousness are described in the book of Revelation, where we read of the servants of God (the Christian faithful, as symbolized by the 144,000 male virgins):

"Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads."(Revelation 7:3)

"[The demon locust] were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads"(Revelation 9:4)

"Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads."(Revelation 14:1)

This is in contrast to the followers of the beast, who have the number 666 on their foreheads or hands.

The reference to the sealing of the servants of God for their protection in Revelation is an allusion to a parallel passage in Ezekiel, where Ezekiel also sees a sealing of the servants of God for their protection:

"And the LORD said to him [one of the four cherubim], 'Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark [literally,"a <tav">] upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.' And to the others he said in my hearing, 'Pass through the city after him, and smite; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity; slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one upon whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.' So they began with the elders who were before the house."(Ezekiel 9:4-6)

Unfortunately, like most modern translations, the one quoted above (the Revised Standard Version, which we have been quoting thus far), is not sufficiently literal. What it actually says is to place a <tav> on the foreheads of the righteous inhabitants of Jerusalem. <Tav> is one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and in ancient script it looked like the Greek letter <chi>, which happens to be two <crossed> lines (like an "x" and which happens to be the first letter in the word "Christ" in Greek <(christos).> The Jewish rabbis commented on the connection between <tav> and <chi> and this is undoubtedly the mark Revelation has in mind when the servants of God are sealed in it.

The early Church Fathers seized on this <tav-chi->cross-<christos> connection and expounded it in their homilies, seeing in Ezekiel a prophetic foreshadowing of the sealing of Christians as servants of Christ. It is also part of the background to the Catholic practice of making the sign of the cross, which in the early centuries (as can be documented from the second century on) was practiced by using one's thumb to furrow one's brow with a small sign of the cross, like Catholic do today at the reading of the Gospel during Mass.

Q: Why is the signing done with ashes?

A: Because ashes are a biblical symbol of mourning and penance. In Bible times the custom was to fast, wear sackcloth, sit in dust and ashes, and put dust and ashes on one's head. While we no longer normally wear sackcloth or sit in dust and ashes, the customs of fasting and putting ashes on one's forehead as a sign of mourning and penance have survived to this day. These are two of the key distinctives of Lent. In fact, Ash Wednesday is a day not only for putting ashes on one's head, but also a day of fasting (see below).

Q: What are some biblical examples of people putting dust and ashes on their foreheads?

A: Consider the following verses from the New International Version:

"That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh, his clothes torn and dust on his head."(1 Samuel 4:12)

"On the third day a man arrived from Saul's camp, with his clothes torn and with dust on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him honor."(2 Samuel 1:20

"Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornamented robe she was wearing. She put her hand on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went."(2 Samuel 13:19)

"When David arrived at the summit, where people used to worship God, Hushai the Arkite was there to meet him, his robe torn and dust on his head."(2 Samuel 15:32)

Q: Is there another significance to the ashes?

A: Yes. They also symbolize death and so remind us of our mortality. Thus when the priest uses his thumb to sign one of the faithful with the ashes, he says, "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return, "which is modeled after God's address to Adam (Genesis 3:19; cf. Job 34:15, Psalms 90:3, 104:29, Ecclesiastes 3:20). This also echoes the words at a burial, "Ashes to ashes; dust to dust, "which is based on God's words to Adam in Genesis 3 and Abraham's confession, "I am nothing but dust and ashes"(Genesis 18:27). It is thus a reminder of our mortality and our need to repent before this life is over and we face our Judge.

Q: Where do the ashes used on Ash Wednesday come from?

A: They are made by burning palm fronds which have been saved from the previous year's Palm Sunday, they are then blessed by a priest—blessed ashes having been used in God's rituals since the time of Moses (Numbers 19:9-10, 17).

Q: Why are ashes from the previous year's Palm Sunday used?

A: Because Palm Sunday was when the people rejoiced at Jesus' triumphal entrance to Jerusalem. They celebrated his arrival by waving palm fronds, little realizing that he was coming to die for their sins. By using palms from Palm Sunday, it is a reminder that we must not only rejoice of Jesus' coming but also regret the fact that our sins made it necessary for him to die for us in order to save us from hell.

Q: Is having one's forehead signed with ashes required of the faithful?

A: No, it is not required. However, it is to be strongly encouraged as it is a fitting and visible spiritual reminder that encourages one to adopt an attitude of prayer, repentance, and humility. As James said: "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up"(James 4:10).

Q: Is Ash Wednesday a holy day of obligation, that is, a day on which we are required to go to Mass?

A: No, it is not a holy day of obligation. However, it is strongly advisable since it is fitting to mark the beginning of penitential season of Lent by going to Mass. The formal, corporate worship of God is a good way to get a good start to the season. Also, even though it is not a holy day of obligation, it is a day of fast and abstinence.

Q: Why isn't Ash Wednesday a holy day of obligation?

A: Holy days of obligation are either commemorations of particular events (such as the birth of Christ or the presentation of Jesus in the Temple), particular people (such as Jesus' earthly father, St. Joseph), or important theological concepts (such as the Kingship of Christ). Ash Wednesday does not commemorate any event (nothing special happened forty days before the crucifixion—at least not that we know of), and could only be said to indirectly commemorate a Person (Christ) since it is the beginning of preparation for the greater celebrations of Christ's saving work, which follow, and although Ash Wednesday is a day of penance (like all of the days of Lent except Sundays, which are feast days no matter when they occur in the liturgical calendar since they celebrate Christ's resurrection), the Church has never chosen to make it or any other specific day the definitive commemoration of the concept of repentance.

Copyright (c) 1996 by James Akin. All Rights Reserved

Glorymax:


Please take time to go through to the end.... thanks.

I am not yet convinced about that. Can u please tell me when, who and how the ash Wednesday was celebrated in the Bible times. Thanks

Glorymax:

Please take time to go through to the end.... thanks.

All the Scriptures in that post are taken completely out of context.
If you are a Christian, you'd follow strictly what the Bible teaches.

Glorymax:

Please take time to go through to the end.... thanks.

All the Scriptures in that post are taken completely out of context.
If you are a Christian, you'd follow strictly what the Bible teaches.

Anas09:

All the Scriptures in that post are taken completely out of context.

If you are a Christian, you'd follow strictly what the Bible teaches.

Bro don't start an argument that you can't finish. The poster of that piece gave reasons why and scriptural backings. By the time we begin to dig into many things going on in the church we will make ourselves a laugh stock among atheist

MetroStar:

I am not yet convinced about that. Can u please tell me when, who and how the ash Wednesday was celebrated in the Bible times. Thanks

Remove the word "Wednesday" which happens to be the day a 40 days period of Prayer, Fasting and Charity of Passion of Christ. It marks the period of total penance, God is ever willing and waiting to receive a repentant sinner. The church in its wisdom saw it proper to give the faithful ones opportunity and period of true reconciliation to God.
The Ash is reminding us that we are dust, it's a mark of humbling oneself. What the church does within this period of preparation for the Passion and death of Christ are started with the following scriptural passages; Joel 2:12-18, 2 Cor 5:20-6:2, Matt 6:1-6, 16-18.
The church is historic and traditional, you can not understand what the church does from outside. Hence attacking the church for what one does not understands becomes the norm of many. It hasn't helped anyone and can never help.
Christianity is all about love of God and love of neighbour. However, the many Christians folds we have have not made our communities do away with hate and evil. The church does not teach that only it's members will have the beatific vision, however, she encourages her members to key into the graces that abound.
I don't want to delve into scriptural now, but have to point out that the Christian scripture as we have it originally was given to the world by the church an in use for 1600 years before we started having issues.
So for a true scriptural interpretations, the church have it all.
I will not argue scripture with anyone but can discuss it one on one, tells you what the church does that is taditional and scriptural. The scripture itself is full of certain people's culture and traditions.