Remember Death

Ash Wednesday Reflection. A reflection for an all school prayer service at Mercy Academy on  Feb 18, 2015.  

What if you knew that you were going to die tomorrow?

This last week we have gone through a riot of colors: red, lacy and a million shades of … pink for Valentine’s Day.  On Monday, a huge blanket of white enveloped us over what has turned into a longer-than-expected winter break.  Today brings us new colors, the purple of Lent (which is a symbol of repentance) and the dusty grey-black of ashes.  

Ash Wednesday and Lent call us to remember our own mortality.  They are a reminder of the stark fact that we all, each one of us, are going to die.  If you are a teenager, you may not have given this much thought. You can be excused for feeling like you’re going to live forever. I sincerely hope that you don’t have much experience of death at your age. 

It is worth considering, though, that how ever long your life is, it will end.  This is why we put ashes on our forehead and hear the following words: “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I want you to close your eyes and consider this question:  How would you live if you knew that you were going to die tomorrow?  How would you live if you knew that you were going to die in six weeks? 

The last time I gave an Ash Wednesday reflection (a few years ago), I gave a list of things that each of us might actively do for Lent or that we might give up.  That was a pretty useful list, but I think that if you really consider the question I asked you a minute ago, you may begin to do some of these things without a list.  I asked my wife this question.  She said that if she was going to die soon, she would make sure that she called people that she had been neglecting or not seen for a long time.  She would make time for them and make sure that they knew what they meant to her.  I told her that she should do that for Lent!  What is it that you should do?

If done properly, Lent has the power to transform us.  It changes our hearts and our way of seeing the world.  I encourage you to enter into this season fully and take it as an opportunity to reflect and to repent.  The good news of Christianity is that death is not the last word.  It isn’t the end.  It is appropriate that Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday fall so close together this year, because Lent, ultimately is also a celebration of love. God so loved the world that he sent his only son to us to show us how to live and how to love.  And in the last measure, that love proved stronger even than death.  So strong that death itself has been defeated.