Ash Wednesday for Non-Christians, Secular Humanists, Non-Believers, etc.
Note: I started this post in 2015 and worked on it some in 2016 and finished it in 2017. So it’s a little disjointed.
Ash Wednesday is coming up this Wednesday. (That would be March 1st, 2017, to those folks playing along from home.)
I found myself thinking about Ash Wednesday a lot back in 2015. All of this collided in my head.
“We have begun to contemplate our origins: starstuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
"Remember, man, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." Genesis 3:19
Even without the idea of humanity being created by God from dust, we really ARE made out of virtual dust, scientifically.
For Catholics and many other Christians, Ash Wednesday is like Yom Kippur for Jews (although I personally think the Jews do it better). It’s a day of fasting, repentance, and prayer. In Biblical times, people wore sackcloth (scratchy fabric) and covered themselves in ashes to be uncomfortable and have an outward sign of their fasting and repentance. (Which is why Jesus suggested folks do the opposite, to do it quietly and not make a big show of it, because folks were like OH WOE IS ME LOOK AT ME I’M FASTING I AM SO PIOUS ZOMG YES.) (We need a doge meme for this.) The ashes, drawn on foreheads in the shape of a cross (while stating “you have come from dust, and unto dust you shall return”), are a visible reminder of one’s faith and a throwback to that tradition. They are a reminder to the world as well as ourselves of the need for repentance. As a child in Catholic school, we were encouraged to wear them the whole day (although technically allowed to wash them off if we wanted... technically), that they were nothing to be ashamed of, to own our faith visibly in the world. (Other interesting facts: they’re not just made of any old thing. The ash comes from burning the blessed palm leaves that were used during the previous Palm Sunday, the previous Lent. We’re getting rid of this symbol of celebration while in this solemn time, to create them anew 6 weeks later. It’s like hitting the reset button.)
I did some reading into Ash Wednesday, and I’m realizing that the message and meaning of it was actually lost to me as a child. “You have come from dust, and unto dust you shall return” was never supposed to be a reminder of mortality or an entreaty towards humility, but rather (from Wikipedia) “based on the words spoken to Adam and Eve after their sin, reminds worshipers of their sinfulness and mortality and thus, implicitly, of their need to repent in time.”
In the song Ashes, the first verse has an almost Pagan-esque phoenix theme, being reborn from the fire, emerging from the ashes of the wrong we’ve done into new life. (Plus, it’s pretty.)
(Tumblr is acting totally buggy, so see the end for the song and video.)
So what can a non-Christian/non-theist/secular humanist draw from the solemnity of Ash Wednesday? Humility isn’t a bad place to start. I’m probably not the right person to talk about humility, though. I don’t fully understand the concept... I don’t know how it interacts (or if it does at all) with the concept of self-esteem. (Anyone out there get all the nuances of dealing with the concept of humility that would like to chime in?)
“You have come from dust and unto dust you shall return” isn’t a bad way to promote the concept of “Don’t fear the reaper”. (Feel free to insert the song here.) Coming to terms with death is something that we have a long way to go on in our society. The idea of death being inevitable, the natural order of things... I’ve always found this calming & helpful.
But not only that, but that, frankly, we don’t know how much time we have, and if there’s wrongs you need to set right in your life, ya should probably get on that shite, post haste.
But I think the core of it is at repentance. We may have a celebration of thanksgiving in a neutral format that works for all people (note: I understand the issues with celebrating the ideas of the American Thanksgiving holiday (esp when we commemorate the original Thanksgiving feast) and how it’s a major problem for Native & Aboriginal folk. I don’t want to detract from that or erase their history. I’m talking about the very concept of having a day at all for thankfulness.), but we have no such civic-led day for the concept of being sorry for wrongdoing and making up for it. (I think that’s VERY telling of our society, that it feels the need to put on a show, to act like we never do wrong, and we have no need for this concept. Or that this idea is merely a religious one.)
I think there’s a place for the concept of repentance amongst society, amongst secular folks. The word has a lot of history and baggage from traditional religion, and probably makes you think of the soapbox preacher, but I personally think that repentance is simply the process to undergo when you’ve hurt or harmed someone else or others (or a group, or the planet). It’s
realizing you’ve done wrong
being sorry that you’ve done wrong
expressing both of those things
making amends for what you’ve done: either setting it right, or, if that’s impossible, contributing to bettering in another way
learning how to not do it in the future, and avoiding doing it again
These are not concepts that are exclusive to theists. Not only Christians have a need for this. All of humanity does wrong in some way or another, all of humanity has room for improvement, some more than others. (I know I do.)
And some places they say “Repent and return to the Gospel” instead of “you have come from dust, and unto dust you shall return”. How about “Repent and return to Goodness”? Repent and return to the writings you find most inspirational, that guide you to being a better person?
