Catholics and Their Observance of Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is already coming except there will be some modifications due to COVID-19. Roman Catholics usually would line up to have their ashes administered to their foreheads, to believe that God forgives through the Roman Catholic priests. Philip Koslowski of Aleteia states the following:
- Ash Wednesday is supposedly an ancient liturgical feast quoting Job 42:6.
- It is a day of fasting and abstinence.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, … take not your holy Spirit from me.” We hear this plea echoing in our hearts, while in a few moments we will approach the Lord’s altar to receive ashes on our forehead in accordance with a very ancient tradition. This act is filled with spiritual allusions and is an important sign of conversion and inner renewal. Considered in itself, it is a simple liturgical rite, but very profound because of its penitential meaning: with it the Church reminds man, believer and sinner, of his weakness in the face of evil and especially of his total dependence on God’s infinite majesty.
Ash Wednesday seems to serve that noble purpose until you realize these verses from Colossians 2:16-17 which I will quote from the Good News Translation (GNT):
16 So let no one make rules about what you eat or drink or about holy days or the New Moon Festival or the Sabbath. 17 All such things are only a shadow of things in the future; the reality is Christ.
Reading those verses in the Bible can be very shocking for some. I could remember how those verses started to have me question my decision to return to Catholicism before ultimately receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I was usually guilt-induced by Roman Catholic folks (after I got saved) that they too were supposedly Christians. However, a Christian who accepts Christ as one's personal Lord and Savior. The relationship with Jesus Christ as one's Lord and Savior is intensely personal. It's one thing that Christ is Lord over everything. It's another thing to have Christ as Lord at a very personal level. Christ is Lord whether you like it or not. Christians have a personal relationship as Christ's personal servants - they have this loving relationship as a slave (doulos) to one's kurious. That's a relationship that Jesus Christ doesn't have with those who are lost and don't want to receive His lordship into their lives. The verses made me see that something was wrong with Roman Catholicism all the more. Some people I knew kept going to masses, were faithful to observe Lent very strictly yet they were living like they have a license to sin. However, I do also know some Roman Catholics who go to masses, observe Lent, and are actually humanly speaking, good citizens.
The rule of Ash Wednesday imposes the mandatory abstinence from meat and to have fish and vegetables instead. There are certain exemptions from the rule though which is stated by Catholic Online as follows:
Latin Rite Catholics from age 18 up through to the beginning of their 60th year (their 59th birthday) are required to fast, unless they have a serious reason for not doing so. According to Pope Paul VI's apostolic constitution Paenitemini, "The law of fasting allows only one full meal a day, but does not prohibit taking some food in the morning and evening, observing--as far as quantity and quality are concerned--approved local custom." (Paenitemini, ch. III., III., 2).
A Roman Catholic can argue, "Wait, but we're not legalistic. We still allow people who have a serious reason not to fast, not fast." I'll give them that. However, to require healthy people to fast as part of attaining their salvation and to call such defiance as "mortal sin" is another. The requirement of healthy people during Lent to do fasting is already a violation of Paul's apostolic command not to let anyone judge them in their meat and drink in the religious sense. Of course, the doctor has the authority to tell the patient to skip certain foods such as high cholesterol foods if one has a clogged artery or to avoid legumes when one's having a uric acid buildup. It's very different from the Roman Catholic magisterium when they tell their faithful that unless in serious conditions (such as recovering from surgery) that they must fast lest they lose their souls.
Not to mention, Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:1-5:
The Spirit says clearly that some people will abandon the faith in later times; they will obey lying spirits and follow the teachings of demons. 2 Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead, as if burnt with a hot iron. 3 Such people teach that it is wrong to marry and to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten, after a prayer of thanks, by those who are believers and have come to know the truth. 4 Everything that God has created is good; nothing is to be rejected, but everything is to be received with a prayer of thanks, 5 because the word of God and the prayer make it acceptable to God.
Hasn't the Roman Catholic institution eventually impose mandatory celibacy in 1049 A.D. and later even commanded people to abstain from meat on certain days? The Bible made no such teaching. Yes, fasting is biblical but this fasting has become so legalistic.
Also, the biblical rules of fasting are as follows:
16 “And when you fast, do not put on a sad face as the hypocrites do. They neglect their appearance so that everyone will see that they are fasting. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. 17 When you go without food, wash your face and comb your hair, 18 so that others cannot know that you are fasting—only your Father, who is unseen, will know. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.
Some Roman Catholics, in due fairness, rub off the ashes after the Ash Wednesday Mass. I know some Roman Catholics actually obey Jesus' commands to wash their faces after the Ash Wednesday mass. However, some have chosen to keep them all day. For some Roman Catholics, it has already become a symbol of pride when they start to display their ash marks to ring the bell to let everyone know that they're fasting. Some Roman Catholics have become so high and mighty after the ashes they had. Isn't it any wonder why salvation is not about one's personal effort but by God's grace as stated in Ephesians 2:8-10? Sadly, even the most humanly good Roman Catholic is just as lost as anyone not trusting Christ alone for their salvation.
The Roman Catholic system is so built on faith plus works salvation. It really ends up a license to pride whether one admits it or not. Roman Catholics can go ahead and deny they teach works salvation while actions prove otherwise. Faith plus works salvation is still salvation by works (Romans 11:8). Others say that works are necessary because the doctrine of eternal security is automatically dangerous to teach that you can be saved and still live in sin. Ironic that some very religious Roman Catholics live like they've got a license to sin. I'm not saying that there aren't well-behaved Roman Catholics who shake their heads towards their wayward parishioners and would attempt to call them to repentance. I'm stating that Roman Catholics, whether they be good citizens or bad, humanly speaking, are equally lost. They still want to pass through Mary the earthly mother of Jesus, the saints, and the sacraments before Jesus.
In the Bible, the order for the Christian life is reverse - salvation precedes sanctification. Ephesians 2:10 says the sequence is first saved outside works then made unto good works. The same verse doesn't diminish the fact that salvation is not by works. Yet, such salvation results in good works. Here's me praying that there will be Roman Catholics who see this message and will have second thoughts about Ash Wednesday.