Blog submitted by Bryan
Thiry, FOCUS Team Director at NDSU
Hey you have something of your
forehead… is a common theme you will hear among your Catholic and non-Catholic
friends today as you go forth from mass and back to everyday life as a student
on campus. Why the ashes? Why the outward sign of Faith? What is so different
about this day in the life of the Church?
For me, Ash Wednesday and Lent is a
time to acknowledge that I am a sinner and undeserving of all of the wonderful
love and grace God has imparted on me through Jesus Christ his son. It is the
one day of the year that Catholics, who would otherwise renounce their faith,
come running to mass to receive ashes on their forehead as an outward sign of
faith. Why is this? Because, we know we are sinners and this is the one day a
year that publicly we are unified in that fact; it is accepted and expected to make a profession of faith
in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior who died for us.
Today is a call to “Repent and Believe
in the Gospel” as Bishop Kagan tweeted early this morning. This day is a day of
repentance and we hear constantly in today’s readings and Gospel message that
we are to turn away from our sinful lives that we have been living and go to
Jesus. Yet it still doesn’t seem like most people get it…The words of
“Remember, You are Dust and to Dust you shall Return” should really get you
thinking, it did for me anyways. If I simply did not want God in my life and he
granted that request to me by retracted the life he breathed into me, which he
would have every right to, I would return to a pile of ashes, dirt, and
nothingness! That is crazy! I take for granted every single day this awesome
life God has given me. That is why today we repent as a Church and turn back to
Christ. We are sinners, all of us
united, that NEED Christ. Without his Death and Resurrection we would be dust,
and to dust we shall return.
Today and Everyday! “Repent and Believe in the Gospel”
For a deeper look at Ash Wednesday and its meaning Go Here:
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