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13 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 FEBRUARY 2020 OPINION William Johnston look dismal, like the hypo- crites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Christians bearing the sign of the cross on their forehead this Wednesday will be sharing a formal practice that dates back over a thousand years, and more than that – in a tradition that goes back much earlier. FOR Christians, the death and resurrection of Jesus is a pivotal event commemorated each year during a season of preparation called Lent and a season of celebration called Easter. The day that begins the Lenten season is called Ash Wednesday. Here are four things to know about it. 1. Origin of the tradition of using ashes On Ash Wednesday, many Christians have ashes put on their forehead – a practice that has been going on for about a thousand years. In the earliest Christian centuries – from A.D. 200 to 500 – those guilty of serious sins such as murder, adultery or apostasy, a public renunciation of one's faith, were excluded for a time from the Eucharist, a sacred ceremony celebrating communion with Jesus and with one another. During that time they did acts of penance, like extra praying and fasting, and lying "in sackcloth and ashes," as an outward action expressing interior sorrow and repentance. The customary time to welcome them back to the Eucharist was at the end of Lent, dur- ing Holy Week. But Christians believe that all people are sinners, each in his or her own way. So as cen- turies went on, the Church's public prayer at the beginning of Lent added a phrase, "Let us change our garments to sackcloth and ashes," as a way to call the whole community, not just the most serious sinners, to repentance. Around the 10th century, the practice arose of acting out those words about ashes by ac- tually marking the foreheads of those taking part in the ritual. The practice caught on and spread, and in 1091 Pope Urban II decreed that "on Ash Wednesday everyone, clergy and laity, men and women, will receive ashes." It's been going on ever since. 2. Words used when applying ashes A 12th-century missal, a ritual book with instructions on how to celebrate the Eucharist, indi- cates the words used when put- ting ashes on the forehead were: "Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall re- turn." The phrase echoes God's words of reproach after Adam, according to the narrative in the Bible, disobeyed God's com- mand not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. This phrase was the only one used on Ash Wednesday until the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. At that time a second phrase came into use, also biblical but from the New Tes- tament: "Repent, and believe in the Gospel." These were Jesus's words at the beginning of his public ministry, that is, when he began teaching and healing among the people. Each phrase in its own way serves the pur- pose of calling the faithful to live their Chris- tian lives more deeply. The words from Gen- esis remind Christians that life is short and death imminent, urging focus on what is es- sential. The words of Jesus are a direct call to follow him by turning away from sin and doing what he says. 3. Two traditions for the day before Two quite different traditions developed for the day leading up to Ash Wednesday. One might be called a tradition of indul- gence. Christians would eat more than usu- al, either as a final binge before a season of fasting or to empty the house of foods typi- cally given up during Lent. Those foods were chiefly meat, but depending on culture and custom, also milk and eggs and even sweets and other forms of dessert food. This tradi- tion gave rise to the name "Mardi Gras," or Fat Tuesday. The other tradition was more sober: name- ly, the practice of confessing one's sins to a priest and receiving a penance appropriate for those sins, a penance that would be car- ried out during Lent. This tradition gave rise to the name "Shrove Tuesday," from the verb "to shrive," meaning to hear a confession and impose a penance. In either case, on the next day, Ash Wednes- day, Christians dive right into Lenten practice by both eating less food overall and avoiding some foods altogether. 4. Ash Wednesday has inspired poetry In 1930s England, when Christianity was losing ground among the intelligentsia, T.S. Eliot's poem "Ash Wednesday" reaffirmed traditional Christian faith and worship. In one section of the poem, Eliot wrote about the enduring power of God's "silent Word" in the world: If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent If the unheard, unspoken Word is unspoken, unheard; Still is the unspoken word, the Word un- heard, The Word without a word, the Word within The world and for the world; And the light shone in darkness and Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled About the centre of the silent Word. Four things to know about Ash Wednesday William Johnston Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton It was only in 1091 that Pope Urban II decreed the use of ashes to mark the beginning of a 40-day season of Lent