Five years having passed since the COVID lockdowns, I do hope that some of the worst practices that emerged in conjunction with the flight from human contact might be finally put to rest. Seeing, however, how bad ideas tend to acquire a life of their own, I offer a few observations on this point. (I note that some of these practices are not necessarily Catholic. Many emerged in Protestant denominations that retained some form of ash imposition, e.g., Lutherans and Episcopalians, but sometimes are imitated by Catholics.)

Many of these offenses can be gathered in the bushel basket of disconnection from some sort of liturgical service. The ideal celebration of Ash Wednesday takes place within Mass, which also sets the tenor for the entire Lenten season. In the event that ashes are imposed outside Mass, this should occur within a liturgical service that includes Scripture readings, blessing and prayer for imposing the ashes, common prayer, and a prayer over the people in the form of a dismissal.

What should not occur is some kind of ash smear that is the beginning and end of the process. Some ministers simply wait in their churches for people to come in, get signed, and leave. Others have speed-lined the process, having a “drive-through” imposition in the parking lot. Here in the Washington area, some ministers position themselves outside Metro subway station entrances, available to apply ashes-on-demand. A few denominations simply leave “do-it-yourself” (DIY) packets of ashes in the back of the church, where one can self-apply and remain a few moments or treat the ashes as “take-home” to be used in the privacy of home.

The common thread of abuse in all these practices is the disconnection from Church and liturgy. Ashes are not some talisman whose application does magic just by performing the act. Ashes are a sacramental, a sign of commitment at the beginning of Lent to the call to penance in view of our mortality.

But repentance and conversion are not merely individual acts; they occur within a Church context. Forgiveness of sins is not just “between me and God” but involves the Church in the sacrament of Penance. This is why we are bothering to observe Lent: Lent is a common act of the Church, bound together on the pilgrimage of repentance and conversion. It is not just Fr. Paul and John and Mary and the Shibilski Brothers who just happen to settle on this same idea in this parish a couple of weeks before Easter. It is a recognition that this work of conversion happens in the Church and through the Church, her worship and her prayer. If we don’t get that idea, then the ash schmear basically just becomes a dirty forehead.

Some of the aforementioned practices originated in the COVID context as a way of trying to preserve the tradition of ash imposition while removing the element of human contact. However well-intentioned those ideas might have been in 2020, they probably should never have been adopted (imposing ashes is nowhere near as important as personal encounter in the sacraments, which was also significantly curtailed). In any event, we are five years beyond COVID and, while the abuses I have mentioned primarily manifest themselves in Protestant congregations, there’s no excuse for them today.

What should be of concern, though, is that these adaptations, even if ostensibly “pastoral,” seem — if you scratch the surface — to embody a kind of utilitarianism, a “get-it-done-and-get-it-over” mentality of “efficiency” that fails to grasp that Lent calls us to involvement in the Church, an involvement that takes time. Lent summons us to make that time as part of the reassessment of our priorities that real conversion and repentance presuppose. Short circuiting that call at the very start of this “season of grace and favor” suggests a need to go back to the drawing board and ask oneself: what are these forty days to be about?