Most Reverend Glen John Provost
Bishop of Lake Charles
Ash Wednesday
February 18, 2026
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
Lake Charles, Louisiana

“Remember, you are dust.”

There are few reminders of death more dramatic than the ashes of Ash Wednesday.  On Ash Wednesday, upon young and old, healthy and ill, ashes are bestowed with those sobering words, “Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”   We are all children of Adam and Eve, and we will all die. 

For those without faith this is a terrifying thought. If I am filled with the goods of this life, completely consumed with the pursuit of pleasure without threat of deprivation, why should I be reminded of death.  Satan knows this, and the Evil One uses our selfishness to instill fear in the ultimate end. If the ancient serpent can make us minimize death with euthanasia or viewing abortion as a right, then this must please him indeed. This is all part of what Pope St. John Paul II called the culture of death. 

God knows this ploy of the Devil. The Creator God wanted to foil this fear from the first moments of the Fall.   It would be a long process in human terms, because God knows our hearts.   So, God prepared a People to receive His Revelation, His Word made Flesh in womb of a saintly virgin, to proclaim His message of Redemption.   He would take death and make it an entrée into Eternal Life.   He would Himself show us how death is a pathway to Life and how all of our human sufferings can be joined to His Cross.   As I heard it once described, through the Cross and Resurrection God turned the table on the Devil.   This Divine reversal is the Good News proclaimed to us by Jesus Christ, and this is the testimony of the ashes. 

I have heard it said that the ashes on our foreheads violates the Gospel prohibition against performing religious acts to be recognized (cf. Matthew 6:17).   In fact, there is no contradiction for in an earlier passage in that same Gospel our Lord reminds us that we should let our good deeds to be seen by others so that they can “glorify your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:16).   The ashes are not for our self-aggrandizement but for a witness to what God has done in transforming death into victory.

Once, many years ago, I was called to a nursing home at the request of a family to anoint and give Viaticum to their dying mother.   To my surprise, she was quite alert, although weak and bedridden.   We engaged in some conversation following the holy rites, and I recall our parting words.   I said, “I’ll return to see you again.”   To which she responded, “No, that won’t happen.   Tonight I will be with mother.”   At the time, I didn’t understand whether she meant her earthly mother or Mother Mary.  It didn’t matter.  She passed away before midnight.   God had granted her the Grace of knowing the hour of her death.  But what is even more compelling is the faith that led her not to fear death but to grasp it as a path to eternal life.  

It is this hope in the Resurrection that moves us to place ashes on our heads today.   We are truly dust and to dust we shall return, but that is not the end of the story.  Through conversion of life, we strengthen our faith in the redeeming Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.   The symbolism of the ashes is a profound witness to the faith that transforms lives.