Premium
Why the ashes on Ash Wednesday?
A Catholic faithful receives ashes on her forehead during Ash Wednesday at Cathedral Church of Christ the King in Nakuru on March 5, 2025.
Catholic churches all over the world will be packed this week for the special ceremony conducted once a year for Ash Wednesday. You don’t have to be Catholic to get the ashes sprinkled over your head. Anyone who wants it is welcome.
Of course, it’s mostly Christians who attend the ceremony and get blessed with the ashes. But you could be a Jew, you could be a Buddhist—you could even be an atheist—and the priest doesn’t care.
The prayer he prays, as he put the ashes on your forehead, is a universal prayer: “From dust you came and to dust you shall return.” The prayer is a reminder that we all die. We all stand before God.
He will judge us. He will judge me, and he will judge you. He will even judge little children, though, in their case, it is hardly judgement because he will simply embrace them and say: “Enter into the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.”
You don’t have to be Catholic to get the ashes sprinkled over your head.
So, why the ashes? What good is that going to do for all of us older people who left childhood behind long ago? “Repent and believe the Good News!” That was the message Jesus began telling everyone when he lived among us 2,000 years ago. What is this Good News?
As the Prophet Isaiah said (1:18): “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
No matter how much you have messed up your life, only one thing matters in the end. Are you sorry for your sins? Are you ready to ask God to forgive you?
Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.
