Feb. 22 was Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of the 40-day period in the church calendar known as Lent, a time of preparation leading up to Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday. Around the world, countless Christians had the sign of the cross written on their foreheads in ash — what is known as the imposition of ashes — and heard the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.”
That reminder, along with the various exercises in self-denial associated with Lent, can give the 40 days prior to Good Friday and Easter Sunday a somewhat gloomy tone.
But that would be missing the point. During Lent, we confront our mortality not only to be reminded of it, but also in order to better understand why we need not fear it.
Make no mistake, our culture fears mortality and goes to absurd lengths to keep that fear at bay. Our attempts to avoid death are the stuff of science fiction, such as uploading their consciousness to a computer and a kind of medical vampirism.
It is not only tech luminaries who try to keep thoughts of their mortality at bay. We all do. Years ago, when my grandfather was dying, he suffered terribly for three or four months. In sorrow, I remember asking my pastor, “Why doesn’t God just take him?”