An Ash Wednesday Reflection
Join The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, Dean of Westminster, as he explores the significance of Ash Wednesday, and how it helps us enter into the season of Lent.
The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, Dean of Westminster
Wednesday, 5th March 2025 at 12.00 PM
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A reading from the Gospel according to St John, chapter 8.
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?' They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 'Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.' And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She said, 'No one, sir.' And Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.'
Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ
Lent arrives with stark warnings and with ash to remind us of what we are made. The collect, the set prayer for Ash Wednesday, insists that we are ‘lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness’. We must change; the liturgy instructs us to ‘turn’. So, it is strange that Lent so quickly becomes just a few, dull weeks without coffee, or chocolate biscuits. ‘Blow the trumpet in Zion’ says the prophet Joel, ‘for the day of Lord is coming’. Trumpet sounds fade and we trudge onward trying just a little harder.
Writing about Lent, the poet Geoffrey Hill, observed ‘I have drowsed half-faithful for a time’. That is the thoroughly human reaction to the Lenten summons to superhuman virtue. Called to take up my cross, I hesitate. Asked to turn away from myself, I stumble, half-faithful, into Lent.
As we navigate the Lenten days ahead, there are two things to keep in mind. This is a season for turning; a time for change. Repentance is a radical change of direction. Paul tells us that sin kills. To live we must turn to Christ. That is the commitment. It is though, a commitment to the Christ who comes to meet us. In Lent, journeying towards Holy Week, we should also remember that we enter into a work that is already accomplished. We have been changed. Augustine looked to the cross and observed, ‘What hung there if it was not that humanity that he had taken from us?’ Lent is a season for grace to get to work. The change is begun; it is accomplished in Christ, by Christ. Lent is not effort, it is stumbling, half-faithful, into grace.
