Or maybe The Mark is Missing!
However one decides to state it, as Ash Wednesday, the start of our Lenten Season approaches this year, we are still in the midst of dealing with the pandemic. And, of course, that means things like social distancing, masking and being to the extent humanly possible somehow touchless.
Ash Wednesday, therefore, presents something of a challenge this year.
Traditionally on this day ashes made from the previous year's dried palm branches are blessed. After the blessing of those ashes, the faithful come forward in procession to have their foreheads marked with a smudge of ashes in the form of a cross. Then, all through the remainder of that day, in workplaces, schools, markets, places of business and up and down the streets those marked with the ashes are clearly visible.
The Mark of the Ashes is there for all to see.
Only this is the year of the continuing pandemic.
And how apply those ashes to that forehead and shape that cross while maintaining that touchless thing?
Well, there are solutions.
One possibility - the masked ministers of the ashes can use either a Qtip or cotton ball to apply the ashes to the forehead in form of a cross. That way the Mark is maintained.
The drawback to that possibility is that a fresh Tip or cotton ball must be used for each penitent and that would mean, in most parish settings, a whole lot of Qtips or cotton balls and someone alongside each minister to present fresh equipment while receiving the used. Not very practical unless dealing with a very small number and even with seating and attendance limitations these days, most churches will still be welcoming significant numbers.
The second solution - and the one that has actually emerged from the Vatican does away with the Mark!
Ashes would still be individually administered but in a pandemic appropriate touchless manner.
Sprinkle some ashes on the head of each penitent!
Grasp a pinch of those ashes with your fingers and sprinkle them over the recipient's head.
Actually, if someone is bald, they would still be marked - sort of.
And as to the rest - well, you will still received those ashes; they will still be there but just not totally visible - unless, perhaps, you are among us sliver-haired elders.
But this year for very, very many the Mark of the Ashes will be missing.
But the ashes will still be there.
And words, familiar words - Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return - will still be spoken before those ashes are distributed.
And Ash Wednesday will still be Ash Wednesday.
And Lent will begin.
And so many will be walking around on that Ash Wednesday with those Marks missing from the foreheads.
Which just may be a good thing.
Because? Well, because we will know that we have those ashes right up there, on top, so very near to that "grey matter" that is also up there. And I suspect that especially this year those ashes, while not visible, will be crying out to be noticed the way that they really should be noticed.
They should be trying to get inside that grey matter up there to speak to us and to remind us that this time called Lent is not about some show and demonstration and "look at what I am doing!"
Those hidden ashes up there should be speaking to us deep within and calling us to remember that this time, this Sacred Time, is all about getting closer to being what God knows that we can be and doing what God knows we should be doing.
Those ashes so near our Centers of Thought may ask us to examine our words, our actions and our attitudes in regard to a whole lot of things and issues and, yes, people. Those ashes just may raise the question in our minds - Is this what God wants of me? Really?
Those ashes might start a process going deep within, where real transformation begins.
Those ashes, silent and hardly visible, might move us on the way to the inner change necessary to bring about some much needed exterior change. This year's Missing Mark just may lead us to a Lent that is truly On the Mark!
And wouldn't it be wonderful if, instead of Marked foreheads on Ash Wednesday we emerged more as Marked Christians on Easter Sunday?
Why not?
Meantime,
Keep Praying
. . . and Stay Safe!
