By Fr. Thom Hennen
Question Box
Q: Recently, in some locations in the Davenport Diocese, Ash Wednesday Masses were canceled due to inclement weather. Is Ash Wednesday ever rescheduled or can ashes be distributed on another day?
A: Contrary to popular thinking, Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation. You do not have to go to Mass that day or receive ashes. Yet, in practice, many more people show up for Ash Wednesday than they do for actual holy days of obligation throughout the year. This is always fascinating to me.
First, it demonstrates a very human need to acknowledge our sinfulness, our need for God, and our desire to begin again. The Church’s Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy puts it this way: “Notwithstanding the secularization of contemporary society, the Christian faithful, during Lent, are clearly conscious of the need to turn the mind towards those realities which really count, which require Gospel commitment and integrity of life.”
Second, it tells me that many people are willing and able to adjust their schedules to get to Mass, even on a weekday. Local parishes do well to try to coordinate their Mass schedules so that more people can participate on these days but, even without that, people figure out a way to get to Mass on Ash Wednesday. Our evening Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral this year looked almost like a Christmas Eve Mass. Then again, maybe the soup supper afterwards lured them in.
Hopefully, people are not just turning up in such numbers on Ash Wednesday to show others that they are “good Catholics.” This is antithetical to the Gospel that is read that day, in which Jesus commands us not to appear to be fasting. The line from T.S. Eliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral comes to mind: “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
To my knowledge Ash Wednesday cannot be rescheduled. The liturgical blessing and distribution of ashes only happens on this day. However, distribution of blessed ashes can be done outside of Mass on that day in the context of a celebration of the Word of God. This can also be done by a deacon or a lay person. I suppose distribution of blessed ashes could take place on another day in places where the faithful had no opportunity to go to Mass on Ash Wednesday, for example in care facilities or prisons, but this would be exceptional.
Whether or not you received your ashes this year, Lent started nonetheless. More importantly, we should wear our ashes on the inside.
Q: Why do we say “God bless you” when someone sneezes?
A: I would bet that even strident atheists say this when someone sneezes. It has become a social custom. In my family, we would sometimes also say “Gesundheit!” — the German for “health.” Other languages and cultures do the same, for example, “Salud!” in Spanish.
Still, where did we get “God bless you” as a response to a sneeze? I have heard that people used to believe that the soul could be expelled through the mouth by sneezing or that it signified the presence of an “evil spirit,” and so saying “God bless you” would quickly return the soul or dispel the spirit.
More recently, I read that St. Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) had asked the faithful to say “God bless you” when someone sneezed during a great plague that struck Rome in the 6th century. Because sneezing can be a symptom of illness, it makes sense that we ask God’s blessing on someone who might be coming down with something.
(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport and vicar general for the Diocese of Davenport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)
