Ashes and Fire

Ash Wednesday, the first day of the 40-day Lenten fast, has come and gone. It is the day when professing Catholics and ecumenical-minded professing Christians go to church to have their priest make the sign of the cross on their foreheads with holy ashes as he utters the words, “Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." They then go about their business with a dirty smudge on their foreheads, ostentatiously proclaiming their supposed humility and penitent state for all the world to see. The sacramental ashes used are made by burning leftover palm fronds that were blessed on the previous Palm Sunday. They are prayed over, sprinkled them with holy water and then fumigated with incense. In this practice, the Romish church, which boasts of being Judaism fulfilled, continues a custom of ancient Judaism and other Eastern cultures.

In olden times, Rome was not reluctant to incorporate pagan traditions and practices into her theology if to do so would facilitate convincing pagans to bend the knee to Rome. Vatican II seems to confirm that mind set still holds sway in Rome:

"The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men." - Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate), proclaimed by Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965

Just how does the Roman church "recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.?" An example of this openness to pagan practice may be found in the RCC Easter ritual of the New Fire. By visiting the Easter page of the Catholic Encyclopedia the reader might learn many things about Easter practices, their origins and how they were absorbed into Catholic belief and practice, including this about Easter fire:

"The Easter Fire is lit on the top of mountains (Easter mountain, Osterberg) and must be kindled from new fire, drawn from wood by friction (nodfyr); this is a custom of pagan origin in vogue all over Europe, signifying the victory of spring over winter. The bishops issued severe edicts against the sacrilegious Easter fires (Conc. Germanicum, a. 742, c.v.; Council of Lestines, a. 743, n. 15), but did not succeed in abolishing them everywhere. The Church adopted the observance into the Easter ceremonies, referring it to the fiery column in the desert and to the Resurrection of Christ; the new fire on Holy Saturday is drawn from flint, symbolizing the Resurrection of the Light of the World from the tomb closed by a stone (Missale Rom.). In some places a figure was thrown into the Easter fire, symbolizing winter, but to the Christians on the Rhine, in Tyrol and Bohemia, Judas the traitor – Catholic Encyclopedia, Easter, 6. The Easter Fire, quoting Reinsberg-Düringfeld, Das festliche Jahr, 112 sq.

Catholicism likes fire. The liturgical use of fire is explained here.