Ash Wednesday: Beginning the Lenten Season
As we begin the season of Lent, the words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux to his brethren in the monastery are fitting for our meditation, as he reflects on taking up our penitential practices as we begin our “campaign of Christian service” (from the Collect for Ash Wednesday), and fasting as Christ directs us in Ash Wednesday’s Gospel: “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face.” Bernard interprets this in an unusual way: since Christ is our head, what does it mean to anoint Christ our head? It’s a bit long, but well worth the read!
Sermon for Ash Wednesday
Today, dearly beloved, we enter into the holy time of Lent, the time of our campaign of Christian service. This observance is not unique to us as monks: it is observed by all the Christian faithful together as one. And why should not Christ’s fasting be universally embraced by all Christians? Why should we not as members be following our head? If we accept good things from this head, why should we not also sustain evil? (Job 2:10) Or do we wish to spurn sadness and share only in what is pleasant and agreeable? If this is so, we prove ourselves unworthy of sharing in this head. For all the things which he suffered, he suffered for us. But if it disgusts us to labor with him in the work of our salvation, how shall we hereafter present ourselves to him as his coworkers? A person is not great if he fasts with Christ, who will sit with him at the Father’s table. Neither is the member of the head great if he suffer with him, with whom he will also be glorified.
Happy the member, which clings to this head through all things and follows him wherever he goes! Otherwise if he were perhaps to be be torn off and separated from that head, he would immediately be deprived also necessarily of his spirit of life.
It is good for me to cling to you entirely, O glorious head, blessed through all ages, which even the angels ardently desire to look on! I will follow you wherever you go: if you cross through fire, I will not tear myself from you; I will fear no evil, for you are with me. You carry my sufferings, and you suffer for me: you pass first through the narrow way of suffering, so that you might make it a wide entry for your members who follow you.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? (Rom 8:35) For it is this love itself, through which the whole body grows through joints and ties. This is the ‘good welding,’ which Isaiah recalled (Is 41:7). This it is, through which it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell in unity. This is the oil which flowed from the head and ran down the beard, which flowed from the head to the collar of the robes (Ps 132:1-2), so that not even the least fringe might lack anointing. Accordingly, in the head there is fulness of grace, from which we receive all grace: in the head is universal compassion, in the head is an inexaustible font of divine goodness, in the head is complete abundance of spiritual ointment, as it is written: God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness before your companions (Ps 44:8). This same head, which the Father anointed so plentifully, Mary Magdalene did not fear to anoint also. The disciples, indeed, interpreted her deed wrongly: but Truth responded for her, that she had done a good deed for him. (Mt 26:7-10).
And so, finally, what is commanded to us today in the Gospel? “When you fast, anoint your head.” What an amazing honor! The Spirit of the Lord is upon him, with which he was anointed; and nevertheless he preaches to the poor saying, “anoint your head!” The Father is well pleased in the Son, and while a voice sounds in the heavens, the Spirit descends as a dove. Do you think, my brothers, that the baptism of Christ lacked anointing? The Spirit of the Lord remained on him; who then can doubt that he was anointed by him? “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). This clearly is the perfume of spiritual ointment. The Father anointed him before his companions (Ps 44:8), in whom before all the rest he was singularly pleased. For the Father loved the Son with a divine love not found in any creature. The Father, as it is written, anointed the Son before his companions, heaping upon him all the gifts of benevolence, gentleness, and sweetness, filling him even more abundantly with a heart of mercy and compassion. Thus anointed, the Father sent him to us, presenting him full of grace and mercy. Thus anointed by the Father, he is our head, and yet nevertheless he asks to be anointed also by us. “When you fast,” he says, “anoint your head.” Does an unfailing spring seek water from the stream? It does indeed, or rather, it re-seeks. To the spring from which they flowed, the waters return, that they might flow forth again (Eccl. 1:7).
Christ does not re-seek what he had given as though he now has less; rather, you should return everything to him so that nothing might be wasted for you. For if the waters of a river are stopped up and stand still, the water will begin to putrefy, In the same way, the flow of grace ceases when a return is no longer made: not only is no increase of grace given to the ungrateful, but even what he has received already turns to his ruin. The faithful one, however, in a short time is judged worthy of greater gifts. “Anoint your head,” therefore, means pouring back on him who is above you, whatever devotion you have, whatever pleasure, whatever affections. “Anoint your head,” so that whatever grace is in you, is rendered back to him: not as seeking your own glory, but his. The one then who is Christ’s good odor in every place, anoints Christ. Remember the words of the Gospel: “Do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.” Not every kind of sadness is forbidden us, but only that which is put on in the presence of others. Elsewhere in scripture, it is written: “The heart of the wise is where there is mourning,” (Eccl 7:5), and Paul did not regret having made his disciples sorrowful, because their sorrow led them to repentance (2 Cor 7:8). This is a different sorrow than that of hypocrites, which is not in the heart, but only in their faces. “Do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting.”
So then, note what Christ did not say: not, “Do not be sad like the hypocrites;” but rather, “Do not look gloomy,” and do not make yourselves appear sad as a pretense. So, you see, it is as the common saying goes, “he makes himself sad;” or, “he praises himself;” and “who blesses you, leads you into error” (Is 9:16), and similar expressions, for these are pretenses and not truth. “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face.” They look gloomy and neglect their appearance; you, however, are commanded to wash your face. And what is your face? It is the ‘face’ or appearance of your manner of life. The faithful servant of Christ washes this ‘face’ which is seen by others lest it be a stumbling block; a hypocrite, meanwhile, neglects his appearance while he makes himself more and more singular by his continually pursuing unusual practices. Neither does the hypocrite anoint his head, when his affections are far removed from Christ, and he delights in empty praise. Instead, he anoints himself, as he spatters the fragrance of his own opinions. For it is certain that the head of the hypocrite is not Christ. As the Lord said, “Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting.” You see with what a brief saying he observes their hypocrisy and singularity, and proves that it is vanity. See also how he urges that the little ones perform good works in the sight of both God and men. “Anoint your head and wash your face:” that is, present yourselves openly irreproachable, as presenting yourself before God desiring his grace; and before the eyes of men, as seeking not your own glory, but the glory of the one who made you.
From Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon I In Capite Jejunii (PL 183:167-171)
Translated by the Dominican Nuns