“Whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father” (Matthew 10:33).
In between teaching jobs, I worked for a construction management firm in New York City. Even though the job is very fast-paced, I was lucky enough to be able to attend daily mass during my lunchtime. This short time of prayer in the middle of my day always allowed me to escape to a place of peace and grow in my relationship with God. It also opened the door to multiple conversations.
Being public about one’s faith can be a difficult balance to find. We want to be honest about the importance we place on our relationship with Christ but we also don’t want to sound as if we are overly pious or looking down on others who might not be living their faith like we are. Ash Wednesday is about as public as Catholics get in witnessing to their faith. Our relationship with Christ and the Church is prominently displayed on our foreheads for the entire world to see.
If I’m being completely honest, when I look back at that time in my life, I was reluctant to go to Mass and wear my ashes in the office. First, I know that in the eyes of the world, wearing a black smudge on your forehead will definitely gain the attention of others. This practice is confusing to the world, and without knowing the context, it can appear strange. Second, I knew that most people associate ashes with Catholics, and there are so many people who have negative opinions about the Church and its history.
I was pleasantly surprised when my ash-wearing caused a few conversations with people that I never would have had if I decided to wipe off my ashes or go to Mass in the evening after work. The discussions I had varied in their depth, but all of them began with the same question: what is on your head?
Some of these individuals knew that it was Ash Wednesday and were just confirming before beginning the conversation, with me and others genuinely did not know why I had a black “spot” on my face. I was able to respond and briefly explain that it was the first day of Lent and that Catholics receive ashes on their heads to reverence the seriousness of the season.
After my first and second conversation, I realized that I was explaining why we wear ashes on our heads, but I was not referencing Christ. So I began to add in the fact that the entire Lenten season is meant to force Catholics to rediscover where they are in their relationship with Jesus Christ as a real living person. We believe that he was a historical person who lived, died, and rose again – and more importantly, that we can have a relationship with him today.
The ashes signify that we are broken and in need of forgiveness. The ashes remind us that it was our sin and brokenness that placed Jesus on the cross. The ashes call to mind the fact that without God, we are hopeless in the face of our own sin and death.
The process of having those conversations about the ashes on my forehead revealed that the public witness of one’s faith grows in comfortability the more one is willing to publicize it. Some individuals still thought that I was a little crazy for wearing the ashes, and others were clearly intrigued by the outward focus of faith on this special day of the year. However, each case enabled faith to be brought up in a context where it otherwise never would have.
If you were like me, being vocal and public about your faith can be something that might make you nervous. Whether that is in our own family and friend group or at work, we tend to hide our faith out of concern for what others might think. Today, on Ash Wednesday, Jesus is inviting us to place our relationship with him at the forefront of our lives. The more we accept this calling, the more able we are to explain our relationship with him has changed who we are and how we live.
So, let’s make this Ash Wednesday an opportunity to bring our faith to the public square – whatever that means for you and your own circumstances. And, this Lent, may we find ways to explicitly make Christ the center of our lives, always reminding ourselves that we do so out of our abundant love for him – the one who endured so much public suffering for our sake.
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Image courtesy of Unsplash.
