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Tom Griffin is the chair of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of a print and online Catholic magazine called The Empty Tomb Project. His first book, on the life and power of St. Francis for renewing the culture, was published in 2024.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”

What are the things and people that we would make the ultimate sacrifice for? What or who resides at the center of our lives?

On Feb. 18th, Catholics across the globe will attend Mass or a church service to receive burned ashes on their forehead in the sign of the cross. This symbol on their heads marks the beginning of Lent, the holiest season of the year leading to the commemoration of Jesus’ betrayal, suffering, death, and resurrection during Holy Week.

The practice of receiving ashes is a spiritual practice but it has countless practical benefits for believers–and I would argue nonbelievers alike.

As Catholics receive the ashes the priest says one of two things. The first option is: “Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return.” We receive distinct black marks of soot on our heads as a public reminder to ourselves and to the world. The reminder that this witness provides is three-fold.

First, it reminds us that we came from nothing and that we will deteriorate into ashes. Life is fragile and life is short. Therefore, Lent serves as a launchpad for Catholics to consider what they are really living for? Am I living for things that are everlasting or is the majority of my time given to things that will pass away into dust?

The things that are everlasting are the realities of faith and relationships.

Money, power, and worldly acclaim will all pass away. However, love knows no limits.

Parents love their children before they are even born and adults love their parents even after their deaths.

Love transcends space and time. This is due to the fact that God is love. God is the perfect communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lent proposes that we must spend more time considering how we devote our lives to the most important relationships in our lives (God, family and friends).

Second, the ashes act as our first opportunity to consider how I am being called to sacrifice more for God and others in my life. The ashes on our heads were produced through the bringing of palm branches. These branches were used in the celebration of Palm Sunday the previous year. This is the commemoration of Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem the week of his death.

The ashes on our heads are cause to consider our death but also cause to consider the suffering, beating, and humiliation that Jesus endured for love of you and me. 

In light of his sacrifice, what can I sacrifice to grow closer to him? The word sacrifice literally means to give up something good for something greater. A universal positive reflection question for our existence is, am I living from a place of sacrificial love with my family and friends? Is there a clear purpose to my life which is bigger than myself? Have I found someone or something worth dying for?

Finally, the ashes force us to think about our own brokenness and sinfulness.

The concept of Catholic guilt is a common understanding in our culture. The truth of Catholic guilt is that we are all sinners.

Christianity only makes sense if we admit that we are sinners in need of a savior. That left to our own devices tends to be driven by our own ego and selfishness. We are inclined to tear people apart rather than lift them up, overlook those in need rather than give them aid.

Catholic theology states that it was my sin and the sin of the world that placed Jesus on that cross. That each time I sin and hurt others or reject God, I am contributing to the pain that he endured on that day. The beauty and grandeur of the Christian faith is that our God knew we would reject Him and sin, but He died for us anyway.

The call of Lent is to be more honest with ourselves about our need for God. Yes, because we are sinners but also because we are not meant to go through life alone. Our God became one of us so that we would know that He is always with us drawing us closer to Himself. Even more so, we are invited to not only spend more time with God in prayer this Lent but to allow our time with Him to transform us to become like Him.

The Lenten season can become a transformation when we realize that God is worth everything. That He is worth dying for, yes, but even more–He is worth living for. That is why, above everything else, the ashes truly matter.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

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