Together on the Journey: A Weekly Blog from Fr. Andrew Sheldon
I have a favourite part of the act of baptism and it is not, as you may suspect, when I splash the water over the candidate in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It is when I take the oil – the chrism – and make the sign of the cross on the newly baptised’s forehead and say, “I sign you with the cross and mark you as Christ’s own forever.” I always feel a little shiver at that point. It is a moment rich with symbol and meaning. As of that point, this person is marked with an indelible mark. Nothing they can say or do will ever reverse the fact that they have been marked; they are Christ’s own forever.
But we also know that in the course of life that cross can fade, or is blotted out, or just forgotten. Which is why, on Ash Wednesday, another cross will be made on our foreheads; a cross of ash that in a way reminds us of how we have let that other cross fade from our lives; reminds us of how we have not attended to the vows and covenant made at our baptism; reminds us that we are dust and to dust we shall return, and that the only thing immortal about us is that cross that marked us as Christ’s own forever.
In a reading we will hear on Ash Wednesday, the prophet Joel implores the people of God to return. Return to the place of that fresh cross glistening on our foreheads as a new child of Christ. The season of Lent is just such an opportunity; an opportunity to return. To return to that place, that state of our baptism. For in the meantime, we have wandered away. We have engaged in the litany of behaviours that we ought not to do, and omitted a litany of behaviours we ought to do. Our faith has moved from the heart to the head, from substance to form, from reality to ritual.
So what to do? Listen to the prophet Joel, and rend your hearts and not your clothing. Joel was calling the people to observe more than ritual in this time of mourning and repentance. Lent is not just about giving up stuff, not just about tweaking your behaviour. Lent is a time for personal reflection, confession, and change. We need this season of Lent each year to move us from head to heart, from form to substance, and from ritual to reality in our faith.
But even as we do so, let us not forget that the mark of our baptism is still there. That to which we return has never really left. It is us that wanders, not God. Joel reminded the people of God that it was God’s good nature and not their outward signs of piety that would bring about change in their lives and in their community. He told them that change was possible because God is good, not because they were good at fasting. If this is true, then why the ashes and other works of piety for us; why the giving up and taking up; why the penitential nature of the liturgy? The answer is simple: we need them. The commitment to observing a season of reflection and sacrifice is one way we call ourselves back into alignment with the promises made at our baptism — to be the people of God and the body of Christ. Ashes, fasting, confession, spiritual practices, are merely an outward sign of the transformation anticipated inside of those who do them.
I invite you to observe a holy Lent. Please join us next Wednesday as we enter this season with some sober self-reflection, and a reminder of God’s lavish grace and mercy.
It is an old Hassidic tradition to wear a coat with two pockets in order to carry with you God’s message. In one pocket is a slip that says, ‘You are only dust and ashes,’ and in the other pocket, the slip reads, ‘For you I have created the whole universe.’
I imagine a Christian tradition of wearing a coat with two pockets in order to carry with you God’s message. In one pocket is a slip that says, ‘You are dust, and to dust you shall return’, and in the other pocket the slip reads, ‘I sign you with the cross and mark you as Christ’s own forever’.
Andrew +