Ash Wednesday

It’s a beautiful warm evening here in Quezon City. I think part of the beauty is that I had a decent rest last night, that the sun was shining brightly today, and that the meetings we’ve been participating in have been inspiring and grace-filled.

It’s Ash Wednesday today, a time when we reflect in the reality of death as a part of life, a time to remind ourselves that our earthly
realities are short lived. It’s a day to be intentionally aware of the distinctions between the temporal experience and the eternal promise of faith.
This is a message I’ve heard many times, it’s a message I’ve preached many times. Here in the Philippines, however, this message takes on new meaning for me. Today is a day that Christians wear their faith for the world to see, literally bearing a cross of ashes on our foreheads. Being a Christian is common in the Philippines; about 90% of the population identifies as Roman Catholic and another 5% as Protestant. (To put this in perspective, the population of the country now sits around 100 million, up from about 76 million only 12 years ago.)

In this densely populated urban area, the mixture of life and death, of hope and promise, is everywhere. Blatant wealth exists beside abject poverty: luxury cars drive into gated (and guarded) compounds, against these walls families attach tarps or umbrellas to make a roof for their homes. A block away from a 5-star restaurant there are chickens kept in mesh crates on the pavement, moved when a car drives past.
Seeing wealth is unavoidable. Seeing poverty is unavoidable. Here, these two realities are interconnected in the one city. Just as the religious and secular are interconnected here; business suits and ash crosses are worn on the same person, a shoeless child cuts through traffic to attend an Ash Wednesday Mass.

Despite these distinctions, or perhaps because of them, people are focusing on maintaining a holy hope. There is trust that God will be glorified through all that is done, that God will be known through all that is said, that God will prevail despite all that challenges. We’ve attended a Liturgical Peace Forum and heard a released political detainee detail how his torture renewed in him a passion for nonviolence. We’ve met with the National Council of Churches of the Philippines where we heard stories of ecumenical services and programmes that celebrate unity over diversity. We’ve shared laughter (but no Alleluias- it IS Ash Wednesday!) with members of the Iglesia Filipino Independiente as we identified issues of common concern to our world.

We have spent the day articulating challenges, and have seen these as earthly realities that might pass away. And we have spent the day praying for solutions, seeing the potential to celebrate God’s promise bringing life. We have spent the day seeking wholeness, that mixture of positive overcoming negative, of life prevailing over death, of spiritual surpassing secular. We have spent the day living in the hope and peace which surpasses what earthly things can offer. We have spent the day living an Ash Wednesday theology.