I am on Fox News this morning explaining Ash Wednesday to a secular audience. Here are some highlights, but you can read the rest over there.
Ash Wednesday is a reminder “that we say ‘yes’ to God by saying ‘no’ to things opposed to God,” one North Carolina Catholic priest told Fox News Digital.
“Some people think of this, then, as something like, ‘Identify a Catholic day,’” said Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, an adjunct professor of theology at Belmont Abbey college in Belmont, North Carolina.
This, however, is an incorrect way of viewing the custom, Schneider said.
“The idea of the ashes is not to boast ‘I’m a Catholic,’ but just the opposite: ‘I’m attached to lesser things, so I’m going to start a process of letting go over the next month and a half,'” he said.
Schneider likened the application of ashes to “those ‘before’ photos we sometimes see in weight loss commercials: It is the admission we have a problem and our intention is to correct it.”
I hope it helps those who struggle to understand why we do Ash Wednesday or what it can mean. Read more about Ash Wednesday in the full piece on Fox News.
