Why does the Church make her children begin their Lent by coming to kneel humbly before their Creator while ashes are sprinkled on their heads? It is because she wants them to remember three important Christian duties: (1) Penitence; (2) Humility; and (3) Preparation for death. God desires not the death, but the repentance of sinners. The object of Lent is, that men, by considering the suffering of Christ for them, may be brought to repentance. Ashes, under the Old Dispensation, were a sign of grief. Mardochai “strewed ashes on his head” when he heard of the cruel edict of King Assuerus against the Jews. (Esther IV. 1) Job’s friends sprinkled dust upon their heads, by way of showing their sorrow and sympathy with him. (Job II 12.) But ashes were generally a sign of sorrow for sin. The people of Ninive, when they had their wickedness brought home to them by the prophet Jonas, “sat in ashes,” from the kind on his throne to the humblest of his subjects. (Jonas III. 6.) Even holy Job said: “I reprehend myself, and do penance in dust and ashes.” (Job XLII. 6.) And Our Blessed Lord, speaking to the wicked cities of Corozain and Bethsaida, said: “If Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes.” (St. Matt. XI.21.) And so the Church puts ashes on our heads and say: Remember! Remember that you too, have cause for sorrow. Those ashes that are being sprinkled on your head were Palms of victory once. What has reduced Christ’s triumph to ashes? What but your sins? You who shouted: “Hosannah!” last Palm Sunday, you who were so full of good resolutions at the end of last Lent, what have you been doing since? Remember! And having remembered, repent.
That is what God desires at the beginning of this new Lent. This is what He is waiting for. He is longing to forgive, and to restore men to His favour. He is “not extreme to mark what is done amiss.” He is not waiting to punish. No, He is waiting to be gracious, to show mercy. And so His first word to us this Lent is: Remember!
Passio Christi-Meditations for Lent, by Mother St. Paul, 1934, Pages 10-11