It's not all about me

On these final hours before our 40-day wilderness season of Lent begins, I did what has become part of my personal and pastoral  Lenten preparation: burned palms into ashes. These remnants from last year’s Palm Sunday festivities will now be incorporated into the ashen crosses that mark our foreheads on Ash Wednesday as we hear, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return”.

Now, I’m quite sure there is some “proper” way to do palm burning business, but for me it simply involves burning the ashes in the fireplace, and then using a mortar and pestle to grind them to a paste.

Having done this for a few years now, two things always amazes me. a) I am always surprised at how many palms it takes to make so few ashes; and b) there is something oddly satisfying about beating those palms into dust.

It’s a surprisingly moving experiencing, and somehow represents the whole Lenten movement from life to death to New Life. Once  proud and flowing fronds are reduced to powder that will then trace the baptismal cross of Christ on our forehead, reminding us that from whence we came, we will return. But we return a changed people, changed by the promise and possibility of the Risen Christ.