Ash Wednesday
Paul wrote, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3–4). Baptism involves death, burial, and resurrection. During Lent, we discover that Jesus is not the only one who suffers, dies, and rises again. Our midweek Lenten services prepare us to consider our identity and connection with the Passion of Christ as the baptized children of God. We do so through the eyes of the Holy Evangelist, Saint John, as we hear, in John 18–19, of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, Jesus facing Annas and Caiaphas, Jesus before Pilate, Jesus delivered, Jesus crucified, and Jesus’ death and burial. Look for this Lenten season to provide a deeper understanding of your Baptism into the passion and death of Christ, with the result as Paul describes it: we are “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Corinthians 4:10).