Jesus said, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward
from your Father in heaven.
-Matthew 6.1
It’s always bothered me that this is part of the gospel for Ash Wednesday and yet we go out with ashy crosses on our foreheads ostensibly to be seen by others as a sign of possible witness or piety or devotion.
It’s always- always made me question the whole practice.
I mean, I get it.
We need to be reminded of our mortality. We need to be reminded of the fact that we can’t take it with us and that everything is transient.
In the old enthroning of the pope, there was a part of the liturgy where a monk from an order that practiced the vow of poverty would interrupt the Papal procession on its way to the Papal throne, three times. And with a rope of hemp-which was alight- would confront and halt the procession and say loudly “sic transit Gloria Mundi” and then blow out the flame. That translates to “so passes the glory of the world”.
Three times before the pope sat at his seat in Saint Peters.
It was a reminder that the enticements of the world are not to persuade the Christian.
And in spite of the fact that many popes did not heed that guidance, it’s still important for us today.
“Sic transit, Gloria Mundi” and “you are dust and onto dust you shall return”.
It’s not necessarily for the world to witness and see, it’s a personal, individual exhortation to quit acting like everything we do in this world will live forever.
It’s all dust.
No one else has to see it,
No one else has to believe it.
But we who celebrate this day of atonement, realization, dust and impermanence-hopefully we are acutely aware.
We are dust, and unto dust
we will return.
It’s not necessarily a statement of faith, it’s a statement of fact, but we who have faith believe that it’s true, but we also do not believe that that is the end of the story.
So, receive ashes or don’t .
Keep them on your head until you shower the next day or don’t.
The point is this: have you accepted your mortality, and have you decided to do something with the limited time you have left as a Christian person who believes in Resurrection?
That is the real question.

Or is it?