Dear Friends,
Looking
ahead, our church celebrates Ash Wednesday
-- the beginning of Lent – on March 2, this year. What is notable about
that day is the public display of penitence writ large on our foreheads - the sign of the cross made with ashes, sifted
down from the palm used the prior year on Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.
Catholics
who can, go to Mass on Ash Wednesday, at which time they come forward and have
the sign of the cross traced on their foreheads with ashes. Catholic
Christians, and some other Christians as well, relish the thought of this
public proclamation of faith. TV personalities can be seen with ashes on their
foreheads. So also people on busses or in hospitals or businesses and children
in schools. I remember when I was in parish work and distributing ashes at Mass
one year, being moved by young mothers presenting their very small children for
ashes. Sometimes, priests wait in the church parking lots to offer ashes to
passersby whose schedules don’t permit them to get to Mass. In other cases, a
dish of ashes is left before the altar in the quiet church during the day for
people who come by. But however we receive ashes, they are always administered
in the sign of the cross.
The
sign of the cross is an ancient prayer/practice. It was introduced in the
second century. Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th century wrote: “Be the
Cross our seal made with boldness by our finger on our brow, on everything…
over bread , over our coming and going.”
The sign of the cross is a way of blessing ourselves.
It is used
in liturgies by the priest/presider to bless us as we begin the liturgy of
Eucharist, as well as at the end of Mass. People are baptized and confirmed
with the sign of the cross, and always with the words “In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
One of
the shifts in practice we have made over the centuries is to leave making of
the sign of the cross to our priests and deacons. It’s true that they are the
ones to bless us liturgically, but if we go back to Cyril of Jerusalem and
other writers, we see that blessing ourselves and others is a way believers
express faith for ourselves and encouragement in faith for others.
As Lent
comes, how about making it a daily practice to bless yourself as you get up in
the morning or as you get into the car or bus to leave for your workday? Tell
your spouse or children what you are doing, but then bless them as you part in
the morning and trace the sign of the cross on their foreheads. Bless them at
night as well. Such a simple practice, but one which highlights the centrality
of the cross for the believer.
One of
the things I have started doing is making the sign of the cross with the
cursor/mouse on someone’s forehead on the computer screen at the end of a
particularly deep and touching zoom conversation. I tell them I am blessing
them and most often, they sit still, poised to treasure the moment.
This
year if you can, begin your Lenten experience with Eucharist and the reception
of ashes. Begin even now to reclaim the tracing of the sin of the cross with your
thumb on your forehead or the foreheads of others.
~Sister Joan Sobala
