Catholics, and others Christians, have this quirky ritual to begin the season of Lent where we put ashes on our foreheads in the form of a cross on Ash Wednesday. It is meant to remind us that we live in the ashes of oppression and control and yet we hope to move toward freedom. Ash Wednesday begins a season that culminates in Easter. For Christians, Easter is a time when we celebrate the risen Christ who rescues us from living in the ashes of slavery and oppression.
We Catholics wear the ashes for a day to remind us that we are subject to a kind of slavery from which we seek to be rescued.
What could this mean in 2016?
Stan Grant’s speech at The Ethics Centre debate last year, “Racism is destroying the Australian Dream”, reminded us that there is a long way to go before we overcome the effects of racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Racism is keeping Australia in the ashes of historical amnesia that diminishes us all. Grant finished his speech reminding us that we are better than the history of racism that has destroyed the Australian Dream and Grant longs for the day when we can all sing honestly, “Australians, ALL let us rejoice”.
We see today scores of vulnerable children and their refugee parents consigned to indefinite detention on Nauru and Manus Island because they are considered a serious security threat to our borders. Both major political parties have a firm policy to victimise these people to save more being lost at sea. However, we are all victims of this cruel enslavement to ideology that abandons any moral compass. All Australians are diminished, indeed many are deeply ashamed, by the failure to live by the most basic of moral principles that the ends never justify the means. For this failure by our leaders we are all complicit in a deeply dark episode in our social history. We are in the ashes and very much in need of rescue.
In my ministry with young gays and lesbians, I still find children as young as 16 being forced out of home because they “insist on being gay”. We know that gay children from “religious” families have a greater risk of suicide among youth than any other group of youth. We are all diminished. Families are split, children are left homeless and/or hopeless and volunteers are left to affirm and support young gay people to be themselves. That is if we can find them before it’s too late.
Australia is struggling to make any headway in reducing our carbon footprint and yet we are very well placed with vast resources, both natural and technological, to be leaders in environmental sustainability. Another example where failed political will and ideology have left us floundering, seeking a rescue every bit as handsome as Cinderella’s prince.
These are just a few major areas of the Australian social landscape that deserve our attention. Whether as an exercise of social conscience or as a quirky Christian ritual, these “ashes” might remind us that we are subjects of control and slavery in our socio-political world.
But what of our personal lives?
We are also subject to a kind of slavery when we fall prey to the kinds of dominant socio-economic norms that marginalise the poor, forget the jobless, become blind to those with major or life threatening illnesses, stigmatise street people and accept high numbers of lonely people in our crowded cities. There is a kind of slavery in consumerism and short-term satisfaction found in quick fixes and the various addictions that seem to rule our modern western society.
We can find ourselves caught in oppressive moments and oppressive practices, “the ashes” of an unsatisfying and unfulfilling lifestyle. Who will rescue us? Who or what might be the fairy godmother or prince of our dreams?
We can take heart from those who might inspire us to join them in opening our eyes to the realities that diminish us all. We might become more attuned to the voices of the Stan Grants, Gillian Triggs, Patrick McGorrys, Quentin Bryces, Waleed Alys and Larissa Behrendts of Australian society. As we seek to be rescued from our historical, social, economic and personal entrapment, our saviours might be closer than we think. We might be called from the ash heap to a brand new day through openness, awareness and reflection on where we are and what is happening to us as a society. We might find a willingness to take action for justice and speak up on behalf of those whose voices are smothered, or too weak to be heard above the clinking of cash registers.
We Christians have quirky Lent and Easter rituals to remind us of the dream that we can move from the ash heap to a celebration of who we are and what we can become by following our values system enshrined in our faith. However, all Australians can move forward. Cinderella may rise again from the ash heap this Easter if we follow inspiring leaders and our best inner knowing as we combat the dominant norm in favour of the thoughts that lead to actions on behalf of our sisters and brothers. Easter could then be a time of liberation for us all no matter whether we follow a faith tradition or not.
