There is no Holy Bible, Scriptural, Christian backing for the Roman Catholic religious Rite of receiving ashes on ones fore-head on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, So why is it that Millions of Catholic Christians are doing it today.
The origin of Ash Wednesday and its tradition of receiving ashes dates back to the hebrews of the Old Testament as issued to Moses. When an unblemished lamb was to be offered up as a burnt offering for that person’s attonement for their sins, and then the ashes were to be thrown over their shoulder signifying their being cleansed.
Today as Christians, the leftover dried out palm leaves from “Palm Sunday, or Passover Sunday, are burned and the ashes used to make a mark of the cross on the person’s fore-head, as a symbolic reminder, that Adam was created from dust and ashes, and that the first Adam has sin, and as his seed, symbolicly, we to come from ash and unto ash our human body will return.
The Second Adam, Jesus Christ, the son of Almighty God was sinless. He becomes the Godly Sacrifce to God our Father for the remission of sin and the destruction of death. It is through the shedding of His precious blood that we are cleansed.
As descendants of the first Adam we are born in sin, but once we become Christian through our belief in Christ Jesus and our faith in his word, symbolically our sins are turned to ash and the blood of Christ is applied. Jesus tells us that the chaff from the wheat will be burned withan unquenchable fire and become ash as our spiritual cleansing and purification takes place.
Fortunately, for we as Christians, it will only be our human body, for we know, that thanks to Our Father in Heaven, and to Our brother Christ Jesus, through His being born of flesh, and through his crucifixion, and resurrection to heaven, we will not have to worry about or face the death of our souls our spirits, for through Jesus shed blood, we can now be cleansed and purified and justified of all our sins, in less time than it takes for a heart beat.
It is truth that from dirt and ash we are fleshly created, but since Jesus crucifixion and resurrection it is not necessarily true that we will return to it. Yes our bodies will die and yes it will be either buried or cremated but the body is but a shell. We as spirit beings will return home to Father God.
All Praise and Honour, and Glory, be to Christ Jesus, the Perfect Sacrificial Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world and grants us His Peace.