Today, with “Ash Wednesday”, Christians all over the world commence the season of Lent, which will end a day before Good Friday (April 6). The Lent lasts for 40 days, Sundays excluded. Forty, as a Biblical number, appears in various contexts in the Bible. Jesus fasted for 40 days in the desert before embarking on his public ministry of preaching and healing.

Lent is a season that reminds us to repent, get our priorities straight and clean our hearts through penance, charity, fasting and reading of the Word of God, all accompanied by prayer. With the Psalmist the faithful launch the holy season of Lent praying, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

Readings from the Bible and prayers invite the faithful to reflect on Jesus’ suffering and sacrifices he made in his life and on the Cross and recommend to the faithful to put into practice certain teachings which would be spiritually helpful to them. Today, when people attend churches to participate in the Holy Mass, the priest will mark a Cross on each one’s forehead with ashes saying, “Remember thou art dust (earth) and unto dust thou shall return.”

The practice of dusting oneself with ashes is a very old tradition in the Bible. For instance, Job says to God: “I have heard of thee… Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42: 5–6). Prophet Jeremiah’s call for repentance is, “O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes” (Jer. 6:26). Prophet Daniel pleads with God saying, “I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). In the gospels, too, we find references to ashes being used for repentance.

Father Dominic Emmanuel is currently the director of communication of the Delhi Catholic Church. He can be contacted at frdominic@gmail.com